
Glass_ 

Book_ L_ 



ESSAYS. 



London : 

Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, 

New- Street- Square. 



ESSAYS 



THE RECOLLECTIONS 

WHICH ARE TO SUBSIST 

BETWEEN EARTHLY FRIENDS 

REUNITED 

IN THE WORLD TO COME ; 

AND ON 

£)tSer &ubjttt$ 

CONNECTED WITH RELIGION, AND 
IN PART WITH PROPHECY. 



By THOMAS GISBORNE, M.A. 



LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, STRAND; AND 
W. BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH, 

1822. 



*& 



TO 

Mrs. HANNAH MORE, 

THE FOLLOWING WORK 

IS INSCRIBED, 

WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF RESPECT 
AND FRIENDSHIP, 



THE AUTHOR, 



CONTENTS. 



ESSAY I. 

On the Recollections which are to subsist be- 
tween Earthly Friends re-united in the World 
to Come, - Page 1 

Chap. I. Introductory View of the Subject, - 1 

Chap. II. On the Presumptions suggested by 
Reason, - - 5 

Chap. III. On the Presumptions suggested by 
the Holy Scriptures respecting the Subject 
under Examination, 13 

Chap. IV. The Testimony of the Scriptures 
continued, - - - - 35 

Chap. V. On the Testimony supplied by the 
Scriptures in aid of the present Argument in 
their Representations of the Day of Judge- 
ment, ------ 61 

Chap. VI. On Difficulties and Objections re- 
specting the Scriptural Doctrine which has 
been developed, - - - 77 

Chap. VII. Application of the Subject, - 85 



viii CONTENTS. 

ESSAY II. 

On Attestations furnished in the Bible to its 
own Truth, by remarkable Omissions and 
Insertions, ----- 97 

ESSAY III. 

On the present State of Feeling between Cal- 
vinists and Anticalvinists ; and on the Com- 
bination of Calvinistic and Anticalvinistic 
Opinions, - - - - 154 

ESSAY IV. 
On the lawful Extent of Prophetical En- 
quiry, - - " - 192 

ESSAY V. 
On the Little Book of the Tenth Chapter of the 
Apocalypse, - - - - 21 5 

ESSAY VI. 

On our Lord's Predictions recorded in Matth. 
xxiv., Mark, xiii., Luke, xxi., - - 232 

ESSAY VII. 
On the Seventh Head of the Roman Wild 
Beast of the Apocalypse; and on the Eighth 
King, or Form of Government, - 259 

ESSAY VIII. 
Plain Proof to the Poor that the Bible is the 
Word of God, - - - - 32 7 



ESSAY I. 

ON THE RECOLLECTIONS WHICH ARE TO 
SUBSIST BETWEEN EARTHLY FRIENDS 
REUNITED IN THE WORLD TO COME. 



CHAP. I. 

INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE SUBJECT. 

X he question whether Christian friends, 
whose intercourse upon earth has been 
interrupted by the stroke of death, will 
renew their association in the heavenly 
kingdom of their Redeemer, and with 
mutual recollection of their past attach*, 
ment, and of its attendant circumstances, 
is not unfrequently proposed. It is an 
enquiry which flows from the warmest 
feelings of the heart; and frequently 
presents itself at seasons, when the en« 

B 



o 



quirer is ill fitted to answer it to himself. 
When the spirit is wounded by separa- 
tion from a beloved object recently 
borne to the grave ; the mourner, at the 
very time when he is the most anxious to 
discover whether reason has any sugges- 
tions worthy of confidence to offer, as to 
the probability of personal knowledge of 
individuals being prolonged into the 
eternal world, is the least able rightly 
to search out and to appreciate her de- 
ductions. When he asks, and with still 
more just solicitude, whether the gospel, 
which has brought life and immortality 
to light, has thrown a ray on'that parti- 
cular portion of the condition of immor- 
tal life, with which his bosom is labour- 
ing: the more will he be in danger of 
being dazzled by delusive gleams darted 
from his own imagination, or of fear- 
ing to trust the light which meets his 
eyes in the pages of Holy Scripture. 
The hour of tranquillity is the season for 
sober deliberation and solid conclusions. 
A question often proposed must often 
have been answered. It is possible, and 
may be probable, that the main sub- 



stance of every thing which can be 
brought forward upon the subject, may 
already have been at different times ad- 
vanced by different writers. A work, 
however, designed, by the assemblage 
and consideration of circumstances re- 
specting futurity, to give comfort to per- 
sons under affliction on the death of 
friends, and including a comprehensive 
selection of the sentiments expressed di- 
rectly or incidentally on the topic before 
us by various authors, many of them 
persons of eminence as divines, partly in 
sermons, partly in dissertations, is in my 
hands. * Without detracting from the 
merit either of the volume collectively, 
or of the individuals from whose publica- 

# The volume is entitled, "' Sermons and Ex- 
tracts consolatory on the loss of Friends;" 2d. edit, 
printed for Hatchard and Son, London, 1819. It 
contains selections from the works of Archbishops 
Tillotson and Wake ; Bishops Bull, Home, Green, 
and Porteus ; Dr. Paley, Dr. Maclaine, Dr. Dod- 
dridge, and other distinguished writers. Two 
Sermons of my own, which are honoured by the 
unknown compiler with a place among the rest, 
contain little relating to the particular subject of 
the present treatise. 

B 2 



tions it has been compiled, it may be ob- 
served that, by no one of the writers, 
taken singly, has the particular question 
which I propose to examine been dis- 
cussed with the fulness which it admits 
and deserves; and that there are argu- 
ments and views connected with it which 
appear to have been overlooked by all. 

The proposed enquiry may commodi- 
ously be regarded as dividing itself into 
two distinct branches. 

L The presumptions which reason, 
whether by its natural powers, or as 
enlightened by the general truths of the 
Christian revelation, may suggest, 

II. The conclusions which may ap- 
pear to be incidentally involved in pas- 
sages of Scripture remotely bearing on 
the subject ; or to be implied or affirmed 
in passages, of which the bearing is close 
and direct upon it. 



CHAP. II. 

ON THE PRESUMPTIONS SUGGESTED BY REASON. 

In researches concerning the suggestions 
of reason upon any given subject, the 
concurrence of general opinion among 
mankind is deemed to be entitled to con- 
siderable weight. The unanimity, or 
the near approach to it, usually testifies 
that the tenet thus recognized accords 
with appearances presented to universal 
observation ; or that it harmonizes with 
reflections naturally excited by the topic 
of enquiry. If nations, dwellers in dif- 
ferent ages, in different climates, and at 
still more widely separated points in the 
scale of civilization, have been found unit- 
ed in a common persuasion that a Divinity 
exists ; the fact is admitted into its place 
among the attestations to the being of a 
God. However extravagant may be the 
absurdities, however gross the supersti- 
tions, however multifarious the idolatries, 
b 3 



6 



however base and detestable the practical 
abominations, with which the persuasion 
is accompanied ; its testimony to the 
general truth is not impaired. If in 
every part of the world, and among all 
known generations, past and present, of 
its inhabitants, and with no exception 
unless it is to be traced in some tribe 
depressed by barbarism almost to the 
level of the brute animals of the wilder- 
ness, the mind recoils from the idea of 
annihilation ; the fact is accepted among 
the presumptions of the destined immor- 
tality of the soul. Of whatever kind 
may be the fancied region which the 
savage or the philosopher may assign to 
departed spirits ; in whatever occupa- 
tions ignorance, whether more or less 
speculative, may employ the dead; 
through whatever changes and transmi- 
grations it may ordain them to pass ; the 
support of the testimony to the probabi- 
lity of a future state is unshaken. Now, 
it seems to be indubitably true, that, in 
all periods, nations, in looking forward to 
a state of existence beyond the grave, 
have connected with that state the ex- 



pectation of renewed and conscious in- 
tercourse with their earthly companions, 
and even of association with individuals 
unseen by themselves in the present life. 
If Socrates delighted himself in the pros- 
pect of conversing with Orpheus and 
Musaeus, and Hesiod and Homer ; if 
Cicero exulted in the anticipated re- 
union with Cato amidst the assembly of 
the great and good \ if the Greeks and 
the Romans peopled their Tartarus and 
their Elysium with spirits retaining all 
their ancient remembrances ; the senti- 
ment of the untutored heathen is simi- 
lar at this day. The mother, in the 
islands of the Pacific, mourning for her 
children, comforts herself with the belief 
that after her own death she shall rejoin 
them. The Gentoo widow burns that 
she may be replaced with her husband. 
Why does the Indian of North America 
stretch his hand with joy towards the un- 
known world beyond the summits of the 
blue mountains ? It is because he is con- 
fident that the chase of the bear and the 
elk, and the pursuit of the ancient ene- 
mies of his tribe, will there be renewed 
b 4 



8 



by him in the society of his contempora- 
ry and kindred chieftains, and in con- 
junction with the spirits of his fathers. 
And what if he also deem that, 

" Admitted to that equal sky, 
" His faithful dog shall bear him company?' 7 

The artless and characteristic addition 
detracts not from the earnestness of his 
desire to be united with the deceased 
warriors of his race ; nor from the fulness 
of his conviction that he shall be their 
associate. 

In the concurrence, then, so nearly 
universal of mankind in the persuasion, 
that the personal and mutual knowledge 
of individuals will be extended into a fu- 
ture world ; we have a presumption, sug- 
gested by reason, in support of that opi- 
nion. 

The belief of a future state, when once 
it is established in the mind, naturally 
suggests the conclusion that the present 
life, and that to which we look forward, 
are not two unconnected and unallied 
conditions of existence ; but that the an- 
tecedent period of being is appointed as 



a preparation for that which is to follow* 
Spring is evidently ordained and calcu- 
lated to be the introduction to summer, 
summer to autumn, infancy to childhood, 
childhood to youth, youth to manhood. 
If the omnipotent Creator and all-wise 
Disposer of our lot has now placed us in 
this earthly province of his universal em- 
pire, and with a settled and known de- 
termination on his part, however com- 
municated to man, that in due time we 
shall be transferred into another portion 
of his kingdom ; reason decisively guides 
and impels us to the conviction that in 
this prior stage of the progress there are 
qualities to be cultivated, and habits to 
be formed, which shall be developed and 
matured and brought to their perfect ex- 
ercise in that future abode where we are 
to dwell for ever. Whatever may be the 
earthly qualities and habits which reason 
would indicate as designed for perpetuity j 
an early place in the catalogue would 
be appropriated to those which constitute 
human friendships. Hence one of the 
earliest presumptions of reason respecting 
futurity would be infavour of a gracious in- 
b 5 



10 

tention on the part of the Supreme Being, 
that virtuous friendships should be reviv- 
ed beyond the grave ; and with the en- 
dearing consciousness that the attach- 
ments had commenced upon earth. 

There seems also, on the natural 
principles of reason, enlightened by 
the general truths of the gospel, no 
slight foundation for the presumption, 
that persons who have been trained 
together on earth in the doctrines of 
one common faith, who have dwelt in 
habitual intercourse as servants of one 
common Redeemer, are not destined 
hereafter to meet as strangers in the man- 
sions of their Father's house. They have 
walked together in the earthly temple of 
God as friends. They have been fellow- 
soldiers under the Captain of their salva- 
tion. They have fought, side by side, un- 
der his banner, the good fight of faith. 
They have pursued, under the guidance 
of his Spirit, the same path of holy obe- 
dience. They have been rendered, under 
the hand of Providence, instrumental 
each to the other in Christian edification. 
They have been fellow-members of that 



11 

kingdom of God which is begun on earth 
and is to be perfected in heaven. When 
this mortal shall have put on immortality, 
when they shall have been translated from 
this preparatory scene of existence into 
the immediate presence of their Saviour j 
will it be that they shall lose all recollec- 
tions of their former Christian fellowship, 
and of its accompanying events and sym- 
pathies ? Surely that would be a conclu- 
sion, which, if the irrefragable authority 
of revelation does not command men to 
adopt it, may be regarded as deeply 
marked with the characters of antecedent 
improbability. 

The moral and religious faculties of 
the mind which, as means employed by 
the sanctifying spirit of God, render men 
conformed on earth, according to the 
humble measure of human attainment, 
to the Divine image, and are the grand 
sources of happiness in earthly friend- 
ships, are not to be disjoined from the 
soul on its separation from the body. Not 
only will they survive the stroke of death j 
but they will be so purified, so exalted, 
as to be the essential instruments of bless- 
b 6 



12 



edness to glorified spirits. Hence arises 
an additional presumption that the exer- 
cise of these faculties in the heavenly 
intercourse which shall subsist between 
glorified individuals who had previously 
been associates in this lower world, will 
not be debarred from the heightenings of 
happiness, which would result from the 
consciousness of antecedent endearing 
ties. To compare the actual state of 
those faculties in the world above, their 
strength, their expansiveness, their puri- 
ty, their sanctity, with the narrow limits 
and the feeble and sullied powers permit- 
ed to them in the region of mortality ; 
to contrast the immeasurable acquisitions 
of knowledge and of blessedness, opened 
and opening to them throughout eternity, 
with the slender attainments which could 
be reaped on earth ; may well be a lasting 
source of mutual gratulation, may well 
be a cherished accession of felicity, to the 
spirits of just men made perfect. 



IS 



CHAP. III. 

ON THE PRESUMPTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE HOLY 
SCRIPTURES RESPECTING THE SUBJECT UNDER 
EXAMINATION. 

Of the passages in the word of God* 
which appear applicable to the present 
enquiry, some have a more direct and 
powerful bearing on it than others. While 
there are some which remotely indicate 
or corroborate the conclusion, to which 
the deductions of reason have pointed 
in the preceding chapter; there are 
others so strong and explicit, that each 
of them might almost seem individually 
sufficient to decide the question. That 
justice, however, may be fully rendered 
to the subject, and as different readers 
are variously impressed by different forms 
and grounds of argument ; it is requisite 
that the passages of either description 
should be brought forward. But no cita- 
tion will be given, which is not, in my 
apprehension, fairly relevant. 



14 



The passages to be produced from the 
Scriptures, will be arranged and examined 
one by one. The relevancy of each to the 
subject of our investigation ; and, if the 
relevancy be admitted, the degree of force 
which the passage possesses, may thus be 
the more satisfactorily developed for the 
consideration of the reader. And if there 
be any passage which he may finally deem 
irrelevant, it may be dismissed by him 
without injury to the rest. 

2 Samuel xii. 22, 23. 

And he said ; " While the child was 
" yet alive, I fasted and wept : for I said, 
" who can tell whether God will be gra- 
" cious to me, that the child may live ? 
" But, now he is dead, wherefore should 
" I fast? Can I bring him back again? 
" I shall go to him ; but he shall not re- 
turn to me." 

These words of David may be under- 
wood in two different ways. They may 
be taken either as a simple declaration of 
the Psalmist, that in due time he should 
be consigned, like his departed offspring, 



15 



to the sepulchre; or as an averment of 
his conviction that he should rejoin and 
recognize his child in a future world. If 
the first meaning be all that is implied in 
them, they have no connection with the 
present enquiry. If the second be their 
real signification, they convey to us the 
judgement of David on the subject. That 
the latter signification is implied in them 
fully or exclusively, is rendered highly 
probable, if not absolutely certain, by 
the following considerations. The king, 
according to the preceding part of the 
chapter, had exhibited the most poignant 
anguish in anticipating the death of his 
son. The event took place. At once 
David not only discontinued the religious 
exercises adopted under a glimmering of 
hope that, in pity to his sufferings, and 
in acceptance of his contrition, the de- 
clared purpose of his offended God that 
the child should not recover might be 
shown to have been conditional, and 
might graciously be recalled; but dis- 
played a tranquillity, nay, even a cheer- 
fulness of deportment, which denoted 
solid consolation within, and excited the 



16 



astonishment and the enquiries of his at- 
tendants. Whence could the consolation 
arise ? Not from the bare recollection of 
the fact that ultimately he also should 
die. The child whom he had lost, was 
not, on that assount, lost to him the less. 
But suppose the father to cherish a firm 
conviction, that by death he should be 
reunited to his son; and all is intelligible 
and accordant. The ground of the com- 
fort is clear ; the expression of it, natural 
and appropriate. 

Still it may be replied, that, admitting 
the validity of these observations, we are 
presented merely with the individual opi- 
nion of David. It is true. It is also true, 
that, although David was largely gifted 
with inspiration, it would be too much 
for us to conclude that every opinion, 
even on a solemn occasion, which might 
be incidentally recorded in the Scriptures 
as pronounced by him, was the dictate of 
the Holy Ghost. Yet it seems no irra- 
tional supposition, that the declaration 
of his judgement on a general question, 
so interesting not only to himself, but to 
all men in every age, should be one of 



17 

the occasions, on which he spoke under 
the guidance of the Spirit of God. And 
that supposition furnishes a more strong 
and pointed explanation than otherwise 
might be obvious, why the transaction 
was inserted by the sacred writer. 

1 Cor. xv. 54 — 57. 

" When this corruptible shall have put 
" on incorruption, and this mortal shall 
" have put on immortality ; then shall 
" be brought to pass the saying that is 
u written, Death is swallowed up in 
" victory. O Death, where is thy sting? 
" O grave, where is thy victory? The 
" sting of Death is sin ; and the strength of 
" sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, 
" who giveth us the victory through our 
" Lord Jesus Christ." 

The consequences of sin form the sting 
of death ; produce the victory of the 
grave. One of these consequences, es- 
tablished by the law of God, which 
enacts death and its results as the penalty 
for transgression, is the separation of 
relative from relative, of friend from 
friend. If men had not sinned, the 



18 



union of earthly attachments would have 
been unbroken and immortal. . If the 
victory to be conferred on the redeemed 
by their Redeemer is to be complete ; 
must not all the consequences of sin be 
terminated and annulled? Must not all 
lost privileges be restored? Must not 
the association of human friendships, 
with all their endearing consciousnesses 
and recollections, be replaced on the 
basis on which it would have rested for 
ever, if the ruin of man by the fall had 
not been effected ? 

The preceding line of argument is 
justly deemed forcible, when applied to 
the resurrection of the body. Whatever 
happiness in a future world might be 
granted to the souls of the righteous; 
yet, were not the body rescued from the 
grave, death would remain in possession 
of a part of its prey, sin would triumph 
in a part of its consequences unrepealed. 
This corruptible must put on incorrup- 
tion, this mortal must put on immortal- 
ity, to render the victory purchased by 
the Son of God for his servants complete. 
The reasoning appears cogent also in the 



19 

case to which it has been applied in the 
present article. 

Matthew, xxvii. 5% 53. 

" And the graves were opened, and 
" many bodies of saints which slept 
" arose ; and came out of the graves 
" after his resurrection, and went into 
" the holy city, and appeared unto 
* many." 

Whether the bodies of righteous men 
thus delivered from the tomb by our Lord, 
as he arose triumphant from the dead, 
relapsed into dust, when, by their ap- 
pearance to numbers of their former asso- 
ciates in Jerusalem, they had sufficiently 
attested his victory ; or were exalted by 
Him to heaven, as honoured fruits and 
evidences of his resurrection; is a ques- 
tion with which, in the present enquiry, 
we are not necessarily concerned. Put 
the less probable supposition, that they 
slept again. Is it then to be expected 
that these holy men, when they shall be 
reunited for ever in the mansions of bliss, 
will be deprived of all remembrance that 
they were distinguished by their Re- 
deemer from among the general mass of 



20 



the dead as the first-fruits of his harvest, 
as the first trophies of his conquest ? Is 
it to be expected that their righteous 
friends at Jerusalem, to whom they were 
permitted to manifest themselves, shall 
possess no recollection of their own ex- 
traordinary privilege in being rendered 
the objects and witnesses of the re-ap- 
pearance of their departed associates? 
Is it credible that no such recollection, 
no joyful interchange of communications 
springing from such recollection, shall 
take place, when the individuals to whom 
the manifestation was made, and they 
who had been restored to life for the 
purpose of being so manifested, shall be 
through eternity companions in glory, 
and partakers of the presence of that 
Redeemer who had bestowed the memo- 
rable privileges ? And can we suppose 
that the righteous men to whom the pre- 
fixed quotation from St. Matthew's gos- 
pel relates, shall be the only righteous 
men who shall preserve human recollec- 
tions? Does not the inference reason- 
ably extend itself to all the spirits of the 
righteous ? 



21 



If we assume, not that the bodies of 
the saints raised at the resurrection of 
our Lord experienced a merely transient 
reprieve from the power of the grave, 
and were then returned to its prison, 
but that they were rescued from its do- 
minion as immediate and permanent 
proofs of the Redeemer's triumph over 
death : to suppose that these saints were 
subsequently deprived of all remem- 
brance of their early resurrection, and of 
the cause of it, and of the accompanying 
and succeeding circumstances, would be 
still more evidently in the face of all pro- 
bability. 

Acts, vii. 52, 53. 

" Ye — have received the law by the 
" disposition of angels/' 

Galatians, iii. 19. 

" The law was ordained by angels in 
" the hand of a mediator." 

1 Cor. iv. 9. 
" We are made a spectacle— to 
" angels." 

Matt, xviii. 10. 
" 1 say unto you, that in heaven their 



22 



" angels do always behold the face of 
" my Father who is in heaven." 
Luke, xv. 10. 

" Likewise I say unto you ; there is 
" joy in the presence of the angels of 
" God over one sinner that repenteth." 
Luke, xii. 8, 9. 

" Also I say unto you, whosoever 
" shall confess me before men, him shall 
" the Son of man also confess before the 
" angels of God. But he that denieth 
" me before men, shall be denied before 
" the angels of God." 

Luke, xx. 36. 

" Neither can they die any more ; for 
" they are equal unto the angels." 
Heb. xii. 22. 

" Ye are come — unto the city of the 
" living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, 
" and to an innumerable company of 
" angels." 

Heb. i. 14. 

" Are not they all ministering spirits, 
" sent forth to minister for them who 
" shall be heirs of salvation ?" 

The argument under the present ar- 
ticle will be of an analogical nature. The 



23 



prefixed passages are adduced to show 
the intimate interest, which, under the 
appointment of God, the holy angels 
have ever taken, and will ever continue 
to take, in the welfare of men indivi- 
dually ; and the permanent and blessed 
association which is to subsist in heaven 
between the angels and the righteous. 
Is it not then in the highest degree pro- 
bable that, in the heavenly intercourse 
between particular angels and the very 
persons respecting whom their ministra- 
tions had been specially employed, those 
persons should be enabled to know that 
their present associates had been their 
unseen and guardian protectors through 
the trials and dangers of mortality ; and 
that gratitude on one side and encreased 
attachment on both sides should thus be 
augmentations of bliss throughout eter- 
nity ? Nay, to put the case of some single 
ministration : When the shepherds of 
Bethlehem shall be, as we trust that we 
may deem them already, the glorified 
companions of the hosts of heaven who 
announced to them the nativity of the 
incarnate Son of God j shall there be 



24 



no recognition, no communication, no 
rapturous interchange of remembrance 
respecting that mission of tidings of great 
joy, between the angelic messengers who 
conveyed the intelligence, and the fa- 
voured individuals who received it? Shall 
not those individuals possess recollections 
of that message from above? And shall not 
each of them also know his earthly com- 
panions of that memorable night, now that 
they are standing by him in glory ; and 
recognize them as having been fellow-par- 
takers with himself in the privilege of the 
miraculous revelation that a Saviour was 
born ? And does not the analogy extend 
to mutual recollections and recognitions 
in all the spirits of the righteous ? 

John, xii. 26. 
a If any man serve me, let him follow 
" me ; and where I am, there shall also 
" my servant be." 

John, xiv. 2, 3. 

" In my Father's house are many 

c < mansions : if it were not so, I would 

" have told you. I go to prepare a place 

" for you. And if I go and prepare a 



25 

* place for you, I will come again and 
'* receive you unto myself; that, where I 
" am, there ye may be also." 

John, xv. 11. 

" These things have I spoken unto 
" you, that my joy might remain in you, 
" and that your joy might be full." 

John, xvii. 24. 

" Father, I will that they also whom 
" Thou hast given me be with me where 
" I am, that they may behold my glory 
4t which Thou hast given me ; for Thou 
" lovedst me before the foundation of 
« the world." 

I bring these passages together, because 
they all manifestly relate to one subject, 
and concur in suggesting and in sup- 
porting an observation important to the 
present enquiry. The observation which 
appears deducible from them is this : 
Their language is exactly such as might 
have been anticipated on the supposition, 
that the servants of the Lord Jesus 
Christ were hereafter to be for ever re- 
united before Him and with Him into 
one great family ; and with the posses- 
c 



26 



sion of their earthly recollections as to 
their Lord, and as to the intercourse 
which in their mortal state subsisted be- 
tween themselves and that Great Re- 
deemer, and mutually between each of 
them with the rest of their number. 
With any other supposition, the lan- 
guage will not easily and naturally 
accord. Assume that our Lord, when 
he had pronounced the passages which 
have been quoted, had subjoined to 
them a declaration to the following 
effect : " Do not, however, imagine, O 
" ye my apostles and attendants, that 
" when ye shall be re-assembled in my 
" heavenly kingdom to behold and to 
" share my glory, throughout eternity, 
" ye shall retain any remembrance that 
" ye have been companions upon earth 
" and fellow-labourers in my service. 
" Me ye shall be enabled individually to 
" recognize ; but not one another. Thou, 
" my beloved disciple John, shalt recol- 
" lect that thy brother James, and Peter, 
" and Andrew, and others, were thy daily 
" associates in the work of the ministry ; 
«< but thou shalt not be conscious in 



27 

" heaven that they are standing in glory 
" at thy side. So likewise shall it be 
u with all the rest. Henceforth so long 
" as the world shall last, let no one who 
" shall embrace my gospel dream that in 
* the world to come he shall recognize 
iC any of my servants, who were dear to 
" him below." Would not this declara- 
tion, as combined with the preceding- 
passages, have been received with ex- 
treme surprise ? Could it be regarded 
otherwise than as pointedly opposite to 
the expectation, which they must ob- 
viously excite ? 

Ephes. iii. 14, 15, 

" I bow my knees unto the Father of 
" our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the 
" whole family in heaven and earth is 
" named. " 

This passage is produced for the sake 
of the term family, which is here applied 
by the apostle as a descriptive expression^ 
comprehending the already departed ser- 
vants of God, as well as those who should 
subsequently be added from the earth to 
the holy assemblage above. The word 
c 2 



<28 

answers with accuracy to the original term 
Trargia, which denotes a collection of per- 
sons descended from a common father, 
and is elsewhere rendered (Luke, ii. 4.) 
" lineage" and (Acts, iii. 25.) " kindred." 
The expression presents to the mind a 
body of relatives in the reciprocal and 
full enjoyment of intimate recollections 
and sympathies : and thus corroborates 
the inference recently drawn from parts 
of the Gospel of St, John. 

Luke, xx. 35, 36. 

" They which shall be accounted worthy 
u to obtain thatworld,andtheresurrection 
u from the dead, are equal unto the an- 
" gels ; and are the children of God, 
" being the children of the resurrec- 
" tion." 

Matt. xxv. 34. 

" Come, ye blessed children of my 
" Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
xt for you from the foundation of the 
" world." 

Rom. viii. 16—21. 

" The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
*' our spirit, that we are the children of 



29 

" God: and if children, then heirs, heirs 
u of God and joint heirs with Christ. For 
" the earnest expectation of the creature 
" waiteth for the manifestation of the sons 
" of God; because the creature itself also 
" shall be delivered from the bondage of 
" corruption into the glorious liberty of 
" the children of God." 

Scriptural instances, too numerous to 
be cited, or to stand in need of specific 
reference, occur, in which the phrases, 
the children of God, the sons of God, the 
sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, 
are applied to persons, individually, or 
collectively, who are sincere followers of 
righteousness. In the quotations from 
the Gospels of St. Matthew and of St. 
Luke, and from the Epistle to the Ro- 
mans, placed at the head of the present 
article, such titles are applied to the righ- 
teous, viewed collectively, as united after 
death in the kingdom of heaven. These 
appellations obviously tend to confirm the 
remarks which have been offered in the 
two preceding articles. 

c 3 



30 

1 Cor. xv. 6. 
a After that, He (Christ) was seen of 
** above five hundred brethren at once." 

Ephes. vi. 23. 
" Peace be to the brethren, and love, 
4i with faith, from God the Father, and 
Qi the Lord Jesus Christ." 

These examples are cited as specimens 
from among at least a hundred to be 
found in the New Testament of the de- 
nomination of brethren being applied as 
the characteristic distinction of Chris- 
tians. Feelings and actions correspond- 
ing to that distinction are inculcated 
frequently and emphatically. Sometimes 
the injunction is conveyed in simple and 
energetic precepts. Be kindly affectioned 
one to another with brotherly love. Love 
the brotherhood. Let brotherly love con- 
tinue. Add to godliness brotherly kind- 
ness. This commandment have we from 
Him, That he who loveth God love his bro- 
ther also. Love as brethren. We ought 
to lay down our lives for the brethren. * 

* Rom. xii. 10. 1 Pet. ii. 17. iii. 8. Heb. i. 13. 
2 Pet. i. 7. 1 John, iv. 21. 1 John, iii. 16. 



31 

Sometimes commendation for the dis- 
charge of the duty is added. As touching 
brotherly love, ye need not that I write 
unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of 
God to love one another. And indeed ye 
do it towards all the brethren which are 
in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, 
brethren, that ye increase more and more. 
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obey- 
ing the truth through the Spirit unto un- 
feigned love of the brethren ; see that ye 
love one another with a pure heart for- 
vently. * Sometimes brotherly love is 
singled out as the test of a Christian. 
Our Lord had said, By this shall all men 
Imow that ye are my disciples, if ye have 
Jove one to another A In conformity 
with this declaration are the statements 
of St. John. Whoso hath this world's 
good, and seeth his brother have need, and 
shutteth up his bowels of compassion from 
him ; how dwelleth the love of God in him ? 
We know that we have passed from death 
unto life, because we love the brethren. 

* 1 Thess. iv. 9, 10. 1 Pet. i. 22. + John, xiii. 35. 

c 4 



32 

He that loveth not his brother, abideth in 
death. If a man say, I love God, and 
hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he 
that loveth not his brother "whom he hath 
seen ; how can he love God whom he hath 
not seen ? In this the children of God are 
manifest, and the children of the devil ; 
whosoever doeth not righteousness is not 
of God, neither he that loveth not his bro- 
ther. * Sometimes evil conduct is re- 
presented as aggravated in consequence 
of being directed against the brethren* 
Neither doth he himself (Diotrephes) receive 
the brethren ; and forbiddeth them that 
would, and casteth them out of the church. 
Ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your 
brethren. Through thy knowledge shall 
the weak brother perish, for whom Christ 
died? But when ye sin so against the 
brethren, and wound their weak conscience y 
ye sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat 
make my brother to offend, I will eat no 
flesh while the world standeth, lest I make 
my brother to offend t. 

* 1 John, iii. 10. 14. 17. iv. 20/ 

f 3 John, 10. 1 Cor. vi. 8. viii. 11, 13. 



33 



When the reader shall have appreci- 
ated the collective force of these passages 
concerning Christian brotherhood ; let 
him judge whether it be consistent with 
their import to suppose that a reciprocal 
attachment thus peremptorily command- 
ed, thus recommended and sanctioned 
with reiterated earnestness, thus pre-emi- 
nently distinguished as the badge of the 
followers of Christ, is to be annihilated 
by the stroke of death, is thenceforth to 
be for ever as though it had never been. 
Let him judge whether it is supposable 
that this union of affection, founded on 
the word of God, growing between indi- 
viduals on earth in correspondence with 
their growth in grace, matured in the 
maturity of their Christian character, is 
destined, at the very moment when the 
word of God shall have accomplished its 
office, when grace shall have completed 
its work, when the Christian character 
shall assume its perfection in heaven, to 
be instantly and for ever obliterated* 
Let him judge whether it is supposable 
that the consciousnesses on which it was 
formed, invigorated, and exalted, shall 
c 5 



34 



be no more, when the individuals shall 
enter together into their everlasting 
blessedness in the presence of that Re- 
deemer, who, throughout the period of his 
public ministry, and equally on his trium- 
phant return from the grave, having ho- 
noured with the endearing appellation of 
brother every one of his true servants, so 
now on the throne of his eternal glory is 
not ashamed to call them brethren. * 



* Matt. xii. 48, 49. xxv. 40. xxviii. 10. Mark, 
iii. 33, 34. Luke, viii. 21. John, xx. 17. Heb. 
ii. 11, 17. 



35 



CHAP. IV. 

THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES 
CONTINUED. 

2 Thess. i. 6—10. 

" It is a righteous thing with God to 
" recompense tribulation to them that 
CK trouble you ; and to you who are 
" troubled, rest with us, when the Lord 
" Jesus shall be revealed from heaven 
" with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, 
" taking vengeance on them that know 
" not God, and obey not the gospel of 
" our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be 
" punished with everlasting destruction 
" from the presence of the Lord and from 
" the glory of his power, when he shall 
" come to be glorified in his saints, and 
" to be admired in all them that believe ; 
" because our testimony among you was 
c believed, in that day." 

The value of this passage, as applicable 
to our subject, results from the general 
c 6 



< 



So 



impression which the language conveys* 
The natural inferences from the words 
of the apostle seem to be the two follow- 
ing. First, That the obstinate persecu- 
tors of the Thessalonian church, when 
they shall be experiencing in the world to 
come the avenging wrath of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, will know that they are receiving 
the recompence of their enmity against his 
followers. Secondly, That the persecuted 
and faithful Christians, when united with 
the apostles in heavenly rest, will Imow 
themselves to be reaping in that rest the 
recompence of having believed and obey- 
ed the testimony of the inspired ministers 
of the gospel: and, farther, that they will 
recognise those instruments of their con- 
version and salvation associated with 
them in that glorious rest. 

It will not be supposed by any person 
that a permanence of antecedent con- 
sciousnesses will be exclusively appro- 
priated as a punishment or as a privilege, 
to the persecutors and to the persecuted 
of Thessalonica, or of any other place or 
season. The inferences, if established, 
embrace mankind • 



37 



Matt. xxii. 31, 32. 

" As touching the resurrection of the 
M dead, have ye not read that which was 
" spoken unto you by God, saying, I 
" am the God of Abraham, and the God 
" of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God 
" is not the God of the dead, but of the 
" living." 

The authority of the words of God to 
Moses, as cited in the passage and inter- 
preted by our Lord himself, is decisive 
in proof, that the doctrine of the resur- 
rection was clearly discoverable, and was 
intended to be distinctly discerned, in 
the Jewish Scriptures, before the days 
when life and immortality were fully 
brought to light by the gospel. The 
quotation from the New Testament is 
now selected as justifying the following 
question. Is it conceivable that when 
God is the God of Abraham, and the 
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob* 
and while these Patriarchs are enjoying 
life eternal in the presence of God, and 
while each of them knows for himself 
that the God before whom he stands in 



38 



glory is his God, that they should not 
know each of them the other two ? 

Matt, viiu 11. 
" And I say unto you, that many shall 
" come from the east and west, and shall 
" sit down with Abraham and Isaac and 
" Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." 

Luke, xiii. 28. 
" There shall be weeping and gnashing 
" of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, 
" and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the pro- 
" phets in the kingdom of God, and you 
" yourselves thrust out." 

With reference to the former of these 
texts, I would, in the first place, enquire, 
as in the preceding article, whether it is 
compatible with the lowest degree of 
probability to suppose, that when Abra- 
ham, and Isaac, and Jacob are sitting 
together in the kingdom of heaven, 
Abraham shall have no conscious recol- 
lection that he is actually beholding his 
beloved Isaac, the child of promise, the 
ordained forefather of many nations, the 
appointed ancestor of the Messiah, in 
whom all the nations of the earth should 



39 



be blessed ; that Isaac shall have no 
consciousness that he is dwelling in glory 
with his revered earthly father, before 
whom he submissively placed himself to 
be bound as a sacrifice upon the altar: 
that Jacob shall have no knowledge of 
his own parent, nor of the father of the 
faithful; that the three patriarchs shall 
be each to the other as three individuals 
incidentally brought together into an 
abode of happiness from three different 
quarters or periods of the globe, or from 
three different planets? In the second 
place, let me ask whether it can be 
deemed probable or possible, in consist- 
ency with the words of St. Matthew, 
that the " many" who come from the 
east and from the west, (and, as St. Luke 
adds, xiii. <29- from the north and from 
the south,) and sit down in the kingdom 
of God with Abraham, and Isaac, and 
Jacob, shall not be conscious that they 
are associated with those exalted cha- 
racters ; nor be enabled to know which 
among the glorified assemblage are seve- 
rally the three individuals ? And why is 
it emphatically stated as a prominent 



40 



circumstance accompanying the admis- 
sion of all these strangers from each 
quarter of the globe into the kingdom of 
God, that they shall be associated with 
Abraham, and with Isaac, and with Ja- 
cob ? Why should it be interesting to 
those strangers to be joined in heavenly 
intercourse with those patriarchs ? Why, 
but because the characters and actions 
of those patriarchs, when living upon 
earth, the station which had there been 
assigned to each patriarch, and the signal 
favour and blessing which had there 
been vouchsafed to each by his God, 
would be subjects of universal knowledge 
and recollection to the inhabitants of 
heaven ; and because the heavenly in- 
tercourse of these strangers with the 
three illustrious saints would thus be 
rendered in the highest degree interest- 
ing and delightful ? 

If any doubt can be imagined to sub- 
sist as to the two leading points, already 
stated, of our inquiry, first, whether it be 
conceivable that the three Patriarchs shall 
not be known each to the other ; and, se- 
condly, whether they shall not be known 



41 

to the collected multitudes from the 
north and from the south, and from the 
east and from the west; it is removed 
directly as to the second point, and con- 
sequently by irresistible implication as to 
the first, in the quotation from St. Luke: 
" When ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac* 
" and Jacob, and all the prophets in the 
" kingdom of God." The words are 
irrefragably conclusive. 

There are two circumstances, which 
render the conclusion the more impres- 
sive. The persons who are described as 
having this knowledge, that certain par- 
ticular individuals on whom they are 
gazing are Abraham, and Isaac, and Ja- 
cob, and the "prophets of the Most High* 
are not righteous men exalted after death 
to a state of union and blessed familiarity 
with these eminent servants of God ; but 
men who lived in wickedness, servants of 
sin, children of the devil, themselves 
thrust away from the kingdom of God 
unto weeping, and wailing, and gnashing 
of teeth. And, farther, this knowledge 
is not described in terms which indicate 
an attainment impressed by a special in* 



42 



terposition of divine agency on the wicked 
as a punishment, and on the righteous as 
a privilege. When ye shall sec Abraham, 
and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets 
in the kingdom of God. The words are 
those of simple and ordinary narra- 
tion. They seem to speak of the know- 
ledge, as though it were a matter of 
course ; as the natural consequence and 
fruit, so to speak, of recollections, or of 
powers, accompanying the soul as a part 
of itself from the present world into the 
next; as analogous to the knowledge 
which a person admitted to contemplate 
an earthly assembly comprising many 
celebrated characters would speedily pos- 
sess as to their identity ; partly, it might 
be, from some measure of antecedent 
intercourse ; partly from the conversa- 
tions which he would hear, from pro- 
ceedings w 7 hich he might witness, and 
from enquiries which he would have 
immediate opportunity to make and to 
pursue. 

In concluding this article, let the 
reader be requested to consider whether 
it is rationally supposable, that the stran- 



48 



gers from all the different parts of the 
world shall be replete with knowledge 
respecting Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
and shall have no knowledge or recollec- 
tion respecting themselves and the r own 
earthly friends, then reunited with them ? 
Is it supposable that the Jews, when 
seeing and knowing the patriarchs and 
all the prophets seated in the king- 
dom of God, shall have no remembrance, 
no recognition of their own earthly in- 
tercourse with their companions in evil 
still at their side ? 

MatTo xix. 28. 

" And Jesus said unto them ; Verily I 
" say unto you, that ye which have fol- 
" lowed me in the regeneration, when 
" the Son of man shall sit on the throne 
" of his glory, ye also shall sit upon 
" twelve thrones, judging the twelve 
11 tribes of Israel." 

This promise was the answer of our 
Lord to St. Peter's enquiry, what should 
be the recompence of the Apostles, who 
had forsaken all to follow Christ. Re- 
specting the exact import of the promise, 



44 



different opinions prevail, on account of 
the subsisting uncertainty whether the 
phrase " in the regeneration," is to be 
connected with the words which precede 
it, or with those which are subsequent to 
it; and what is the meaning which, if the 
latter connection be preferred, the phrase 
may bear. " Ye who have followed me 
in the regeneration :" Ye who have been 
my companions, and my delegated mini- 
sters, in this my office of converting and 
regenerating the world, ye, when I shall 
be enthroned to judge the world, shall 
be enthroned as my assessors in pronoun- 
cing judgement on the twelve tribes of 
Israel. Or, " in the regeneration ye shall 
sit on twelve thrones: 99 In that day, in 
which I shall have renovated all things 
by the reception of my servants into my 
heavenly kingdom, ye shall be through- 
out eternity seated on twelve thrones, and 
dignified as heads and rulers under Me 
of my glorified tribes of Israel . It has also 
been imagined that the sentence, on the 
supposition that the dubious words are to 
be taken in the latter connection, may 



45 



relate to some deputed superintendence 
over the tribes of Israel to be visibly or 
invisibly exercised by the Apostles dur- 
ing the millenian reign of our Lord. But 
whichever of the two connections be 
chosen, whichever of the three interpre- 
tations be adopted ; in every one of the 
cases it is equally clear that the promise 
to the Apostles, that they shall sit on 
twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes 
of Israel, relates to a period which was 
to be posterior to the time of the death 
of the Apostles. Neither is it less evi- 
dent that the Apostles, in thus judging 
the tribes of Israel, are severally to know 
the persons judged by them to be of the 
tribes of Israel : in other words, that the 
Apostles are severally to retain, after 
death, their human consciousnesses and 
recollections. The reasoning applies it- 
self with equal clearness to departed Is- 
raelites who shall perceive themselves to 
be the subjects of this Apostolical judge- 
ment, whatever it may be. They mani- 
festly will know themselves to be Israel- 
ites, and to be judged by the Apostles. 



46 



Luke, xvi. 22 — 25. 

" And it came to pass that the beg- 
" gar died, and was carried by the angels 
" into Abraham's bosom : the rich man 
" also died, and wasburied. Andinhellhe 
" lift up his eyes, being in torments ; and 
" seeth Abraham, afar off, and Lazarus 
" in his bosom. And he cried and said, 
H Father Abraham have mercy on me j 
" and send Lazarus, that he may dip the 
" tip of his finger in water and cool my 
" tongue : for I am tormented in this 
6i flame. But Abraham said, Son, re- 
" member that thou in thy lifetime re- 
" ceivedst thy good things, and likewise 
" Lazarus, evil things : but now he is 
" comforted, and thou art tormented." 

It might scarcely be too strong a posi- 
tion to affirm, that the parable of the rich 
man and Lazarus, delivered by our Lord 
himself, is in itself decisive on the ques- 
tion which is discussed in the present 
essay. The authority of the speaker h 
incontrovertible. The language employ- 
ed is unequivocal. The whole parable is 
pervaded by the assumption, the argument 



47 

of the parable is constructed and is re- 
gularly dependent on the assumed fact, 
that the rich man retains in the world 
into which he is removed, and in the 
state in which he is unalterably fixed, 
his earthly consciousnesses and recollec- 
tions, and becomes knowingly conversant 
with individuals unseen by him in the 
body. He discovers Lazarus afar off, 
and at once knows him as distinctly and 
determinately as formerly when a beggar 
lying at the gate. He possesses a clear 
perception of the circumstances of his 
father's house, and of the character of 
his own five brethren. He is enabled 
immediately to recognize the patriarch 
Abraham personally ; and addresses the 
Father of the faithful as his ancestor, and 
appeals to his paternal compassion. On 
what basis does Abraham build his reply ? 
On these very consciousnesses and recol- 
tions abiding in the bosom of the un- 
happy man. " Son, remember that thou 
" in thy lifetime receivedst thy good 
" things ;" those things which alone the 
rich man had prized and sought as con- 
stituting happiness j " and likewise La- 



48 



* zarus evil things," poverty and pain, 
under whose discipline the event proves 
that Lazarus had been led to fix his heart 
on God and bliss eternal. The rich man 
tacitly admits his remembrance of all 
these particulars ; and shows that he 
fully enters into Abraham's reference to 
the writings of Moses and of the pro- 
phets. To the very last word the para- 
ble proceeds consistently on the ground- 
work, on which it began to establish its 
argument. 

Still it may be alleged by an objector, 
that a parable is but a parable ; that it 
adopts fictitious representation ; that it 
is not to be estimated as a real history, 
nor to be regarded as designed to be 
doctrinally conclusive on points incident- 
ally comprehended in its texture. This 
statement would be just. But while it is 
true that the circumstantials of a parable 
may be fictitious, and that the slighter ap- 
pendages are not unfrequently selected 
simply for the sake of giving coherence and 
life and emphasis to the story ; it is equally 
true that the specific scope of every 
parable of our Lord's is an inspired argu- 



49 

ment, and that the essentials of the 
parable are intended to prefigure reali- 
ties. If any addition to the observations 
which have been offered on the parable 
before us be requisite ; we may ask, whe- 
ther it is supposable that our Lord, if 
there were to be no recognition of indi- 
viduals beyond the grave, would have 
so constructed and carried forward this 
parable, that it should not only des- 
cribe the existence of such recognition, 
but should constitute that recognition 
the basis of the general argument. 

Rev. vi. 9 — 11. 

" And when he had opened the fifth 
" seal, 1 saw under the altar the souls 
" of them that were slain for the word 
" of God, and for the testimony which 
" they held. And they cried with a 
" loud voice, saying, How long, O 
" Lord, holy and true, dost thou not 
"judge and avenge our blood on them 
" that dwell on the earth ? And white 
" robes were given unto every one of 
" them ; and it was said unto them that 
"they should rest yet for a little season, 

D 



50 



" until their fellow-servants also, and 
u their brethren that should be killed as 
" they were, should be fulfilled." 

The Apocalypse contains a series of 
prophetic and emblematical visions, bear- 
ing in many points a resemblance to 
parabolic composition. On that account, 
I adduce the present passage next in 
order to the parable discussed in the 
preceding article. In this passage, to 
whatever period or event the prediction 
may be applied by expositors, it is ob- 
vious that, throughout the prediction, 
and as its very basis, the souls of the 
departed martyrs are described as evi- 
dently and intimately knowing one ano- 
ther ; and likewise as retaining their 
general knowledge of the events which 
had befallen them upon earth. The re- 
marks, therefore, which were subjoined 
to the parable recently considered, may 
be transferred to the verses which have 
now been cited from the Revelations. 

Rev- v. 8—10. 

" And when he had taken the book, 
u the four beasts (£W, living creatures) 



£1 



" and four <and twenty elders fell down 
" before the lamb, having every one of 
" them harps, and golden vials full of 
" odours, which are the prayers of saints • 
" And they sang a new song, saying,, 
" Thou art worthy to take the book, and 
" to open the seals thereof; for thou wast 
" slain, and hast redeemed us to God by 
* c thy blood, out of every kindred and 
" tongue and people and nation ; and 
tf hast made us unto our God kings and 
" priests ; and we shall reign on the 
" earth. 55 

The reader may again be referred to 
the antecedent observations. The lan- 
guage of the glorified individuals here 
introduced manifestly implies their know- 
ledge one of another, and of the events 
of their mortal life ; and a remembrance 
of the different countries in which they 
were themselves brought to participate 
in the mercies of redemption. This 
conclusion is not affected by diversity of 
opinions among interpreters, as to the 
signification of the four living creatures 
and the twenty-four elders; nor as to 
the import of their future reign on the 
d 2 



52 



earth. That prediction seems to relate 
to the times and events indicated, Rev. 
xx. 4. 

Other passages from the Apocalypse, 
analogous to the two which have been 
cited, and admitting similar observa- 
tions, might be subjoined. * 

Heb. xii. 2% 23. 

" But ye are come unto Mount Sion, 
%i and unto the city of the living God, 
w the heavenly Jesusalem, and to an in- 
" numerable company of angels, to the 
*' general assembly and church of the 
* c first-born which are written in heaven, 
" and to God the Judge of all, and to 
" the spirits of just men made perfect." 

If to this enumeration of Christian 
privileges the apostle had annexed a 
declaration, that holy men, when incor- 
porated after death into the general 
assembly of the Church, and united 
amidst the spirits of just men made per- 
fect, with all the fellow-servants of their 
Redeemer with whom they had taken 

* As Rev. vii. 9—17. xviii. 20. xix. 1—7, 



53 



spiritual counsel together on earth and 
had walked in the house of God as 
friends, were nevertheless destined to 
retain no consciousness of those associ- 
ations, no recollection of those indivi- 
duals : would not the animating force of 
the passage have been deeply impaired ? 
Would not the natural and obvious import 
have been contradicted ? 

Luke, ix. 29—33. 

" And as he prayed, the fashion of his 
" countenance was altered, and his rai- 
" ment was white and glistering. And 
" behold, there talked with him two men, 
" which were Moses and Elias, who ap- 
" peared in glory, and spake of his de- 
" cease, which he should accomplish at 
" Jerusalem. But Peter, and they that 
" were with him, were heavy with sleep* 
" And when they were awake, they saw r 
" his glory, and the two men that stood 
" with him. And it came to pass, as 
" they departed from him, Peter said 
" unto him, Master, it is good for us to 
" be here j and let us make three tabeiv 
d 3 



o4 



" nacles, one for thee, and one for 
" Moses, and one for Elias." 

In this memorable transaction, we have 
an irresistible proof and an undeniable 
example of glorified saints knowing each 
other, and holding the most interesting 
communications respecting events con- 
nected with earth. The fact is so mani- 
fest, that remarks upon it as throwing 
light upon the subject of this treatise 
may more easily be enfeebling than im- 
pressive. To advance arguments in 
order to prove that Moses and Elijah, 
both commissioned conjointly to minister 
in glory to the incarnate Son of God 
on the mountain of transfiguration, knew 
each the other, would be idle. The 
fact speaks for itself. Their discourse 
with our Saviour would indicate to the 
three apostles, who the glorious visitants 
were whom they beheld. If the extension 
of the analogy to the reciprocal knowledge 
of other men in a future world be supposed 
to be encumbered with a difficulty because 
Elijah was exempted from death ; the 
seeming obstacle, which in fact does not 
deserve the name, is removed by advert- 



55 



ing to his associate, Moses died and 
was buried. For special reasons, his body 
was placed in an unknown grave by the 
immediate hand of God ; but his death 
was the death of all men. The analogy 
in truth extends farther than is requisite 
for the support of our general argument. 
It extends to show not merely, that, at 
the resurrection, mutual recollections and 
consciousnesses will be revived, but that 
they experience no interruption from 
death ; that memory suffers no pause ; 
that in the interval between the separa- 
tion of the soul from its earthly tene- 
ment and its future recovery of the no 
longer perishable tabernacle, the un- 
bodied spirit retains in full energy the 
knowledge, the impressions, the attach, 
ments, with which it quitted the abodes 
of mortality. The same conclusion we 
have already seen inculcated by the para- 
ble of the rich man and Lazarus, and also 
by various passages in the Apocalypse. 

1 Thess. iv. 13—18. 
" But I would not have you to be ig- 
45 norant, brethren, concerning them 
d 4 



56 



" which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even 
" as others which have no hope. For if we 
" believe that Jesus died and rose again, 
" even so them also which sleep in Jesus 
" will God bring with him. For this we 
" say unto you by the word of the Lord, 
" that we which are alive and remain unto 
" the coming of the Lord, shall not pre- 
" vent them which are asleep. For the 
" Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
" with a shout, with the voice of the arch- 
u angel, and with the trump of God ; and 
" the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then 
u we which are alive and remain, shall be 
* ( caught up together with them in the 
" clouds to meet the Lord in the air ; and 
" so shall we ever be with the Lord. 
" Wherefore comfort one another w r ith 
" these words." 

The specific and avowed design of the 
Apostle in this passage is, to give conso- 
lation : Wherefore^ comfort ye one another 
with these "words. The subject on which 
he proposes to furnish comfort, and re- 
gards himself as furnishing it satisfacto- 
rily, is the death of religious friends. I 
would not have ijou to be ignorant concern- 



57 

ing them "which are asleep ; them which, as 
it is subsequently explained, sleep in Jesus x 
are the dead in Christ. Why not be igno- 
rant respecting them ? That ye sorrow not % 
even as others which have no hope. Why 
were not the Thessalonians to sorrow like 
a person who had no hope? Because, as 
St. Paul implies in this direction, and pro- 
ceeds to prove, they were fully warranted 
in having hope ; and should forthwith re- 
ceive from him the information which 
would establish the hope. Hope of what 
event? This question is the hinge on 
which the whole drift of the passage 
turns. Was it a hope that their departed 
friends should rise again ? That there should 
be a resurrection of the dead, the Thes- 
salonians were already certain. Like Mar- 
tha, they knew that their departed friends 
should rise again in the resurrection at 
the last day. The apostle, in setting be- 
fore them information and comfort, is led 
to mention certain steps in the progress 
of the resurrection ; to state that the 
righteous of that generation which shall 
be found dwelling upon earth at the 
arrival of the day of Judgement, shall not 
b 5 



58 



have priority, as to the transformation of 
the body from corruptible into incorrup- 
tible, over holy men previously dead : but 
he lets not fall the slightest intimation 
that any one among the Thessalonians, 
whom he addresses, had a doubt as to the 
resurrection itself. By incidentally de- 
tailing to them some steps in its progress, 
he recognises their admission of that 
grand and fundamental doctrine of 
Christianity. On that doctrine, there- 
fore, they needed no additional hope nor 
comfort. As little did they doubt that 
holy men, including the religious friends 
whom they had lost, would be happy in 
a future existence. Neither, therefore, 
was that the point on which instruction 
and consolation were requisite. The 
only remaining point which can be ima- 
gined, the actual point on which the 
Thessalonians were ignorant, whether 
with sufficient previous means of know- 
ledge or not would be an enquiry with 
which we have no concern ; the only 
point on which they needed comfort 
and confirmation of hope, was this : 
Whether at the resurrection they should 



59 



regain those brethren whom they had 
lost; whether friend should be restored 
to friend with maintained remembrances 
and conscious affections ? Observe the 
comforting assurances with which the 
apostle meets their solicitude. The 
comfort, detached from the incidental 
details already noticed with which it is 
blended, is contained in these two de- 
clarations : Them which sleep in Jesus, 
will God bring with him — and so shall we 
ever be with the Lord. What consolation 
would it have been to the Thessalonians, 
sorrowing for the interruption of attach- 
ments severed by death, to be informed 
that Christ would bring with him the 
lamented friends, if no recognition of 
them was to ensue ? Where would have 
been the comforting relevancy of the 
promise, so shall we ever be with the Lord, 
to the particular case to which St. Paul 
was applying his argument ; if the reci- 
procal objects of affection, when thus 
brought together afresh and for ever in 
the kingdom of their Redeemer, were 
then to continue throughout eternity 
ignorant each of the presence and of the 
d 6 



60 



identity of the other ? Take the declara- 
tions as averring the earnestly desired 
restoration and recognition, and the re- 
levancy is complete ; the hope is exalted 
into certainty} the consolation is actual 
and perfect. 



61 



CHAP. V. 

ON THE TESTIMONY SUPPLIED BY THE SCRIP- 
TURES IN AID OF THE PRESENT ARGUMENT 
IN THEIR REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DAY OF 
JUDGEMENT. 

Matt, xviii. 23. 

€€ Therefore is the kingdom of heaven 
" likened unto a certain king which 
" would take account of his servants. 35 

Luke, xiii. 25 — 27. 

" When once the master of the house is 
4C risen up and hath shut to the door, and 
cc ye begin to stand without and to knock 
" at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open 
u unto us ; and he shall answer and say 
c< unto you, I know not whence ye are : 
" then shall ye begin to say, we have 
cc eaten and drunk in thy presence, 
" and thou hast taught in our streets. 
<c But he shall say, I tell you, I know 
u you not whence ye are : depart from 
u me, all ye workers of iniquity. ,, 



62 

Matt. xvi. 27. 
"The Son of Man shall come in the 
" glory of the Father, with his angels : 
" and then he shall reward every man ac- 
" cording to his works." 

Matt. xii. 36. 
" I say unto you, that every idle word 
" that men speak, they shall give account 
" thereof in the day of Judgement." 
Romans, xiv. 12. 
" So, then, every one of us shall give 
" account of himself to God." 

1 Pet. iv. 4, 5. 
" They — shall give account to him 
"that is ready to judge the quick and 
" the dead." 

Rev. xx. 12, IS. 
" And I saw the dead, small and great, 
" stand before God : and the books were 
" opened; and another book was opened, 
<c which is the book of life: and the dead 
" were judged out of those things which 
" were written in the books according to 
" their works. And the sea gave up the 
" dead which were in it; and death and 
" hell delivered up the dead which were 



63 



«' in them: and- they, were judged every 
"'man according to his works." 

These passages are not brought for- 
ward for their primary object, that of 
establishing the certainty of a -final Judge- 
ment, and of its appropriate and everlast- 
ing results to the righteous and to the 
wicked* They are quoted on account of 
the light which they throw on the details 
of that great day ; details whence arises an 
argument which will be found of high 
importance in the present investigation. 
That the argument may be exhibited in 
its complete force, another citation, of 
greater length, and entering more minute- 
ly into detail, must be added^ 

Matt. xxv. 31 — 46. 

"When the Son of man shall come in 
" his glory, and all the holy angels with 
" Him : then shall he sit upon the throne 
" of his glory; and before Him shall be 
"gathered all nations. And he shall se- 
parate them one from another, as a 
"shepherd divideth his sheep from the 
"goats: and He shall set the sheep on 
"* his right hand, but the goats on His 

left. Then shall the King say unto" 



€ti 



64 



" them on his right hand : Come, ye 
" blessed of my Father, inherit the 
" kingdom prepared for you from the 
" foundation of the world. For I was 
" an hungred, and ye gave me meat : I 
" was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I 
" was a stranger, and ye took me in : 
" naked, and ye clothed me : 1 was sick, 
" and ye visited me : I was in prison, and 
" ye came unto me. Then shall the 
« righteous answer Him, saying ; Lord, 
" when saw we Thee an hungred, and 
" fed Thee ? Or thirsty, and gave Thee 
" drink ? When saw we Thee a stranger, 
« and took Thee in ? Or naked, and 
" clothed Thee ? Or when saw we Thee 
" sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee ? 
" And the King shall answer and say 
" unto them : Verily, I say unto you, in- 
" asmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
" the least of these my brethren, ye have 
" done it unto me. Then shall He say 
" also unto them on the left hand ; De- 
" part from Me, ye cursed, into ever- 
" lasting fire, prepared for the devil and 
" his angels. For I was an hungred, and 
a ye gave me no meat. I was thirsty, 



65 



" and ye gave me no drink. I was a 
H stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, 
" and ye clothed me not ; sick, and in 
" prison, and ye visited Me not. Then 
" shall they also answer Him, saying j 
" Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred ; 
" or athirst; or a stranger 5 or naked; or 
" sick ; or in prison ; and did not minis- 
" ter unto Thee ? Then shall He answer 
" them, saying j Verily, I say unto you, 
" inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the 
" least of these, ye did it not to Me. 
" And these shall go away into everlast- 
" ing punishment: but the righteous into 
u life eternal." 

That beings shall undergo a process 
of judgement for the whole of their con- 
duct during an antecedent period of re- 
sponsibility, and should not at the time 
of the judgement possess a clear andcom- 
prehensive recollection of the actions, 
the motives, and the principles, of which 
an account is then to be rendered, and 
for which the sentence is to be pro- 
nounced ; would be a supposition impos- 
sible to be entertained. The notices re- 



66 



specting the judicial course of the day of 
retribution, which are recorded in the 
passages already cited, exclude every 
such hypothesis. The individuals of the 
assembled generations of the entire hu- 
man race are represented as severally 
retaining a perfect knowledge of their 
earthly proceedings. To that knowledge 
the Judge appeals. On the attestation of 
that knowledge the sentence is grounded. 
Let it then be considered that the recol- 
lection, in the case of an individual, of 
his personal deeds and desires, good and 
evil, necessarily involves recollection on 
his part of a great number of other in- 
dividuals, and of actions and wishes of 
which they were the objects. Concern- 
ing very few transgressions, compara- 
tively speaking, of the law of God, can 
it be said that they have not had in the 
mind of the transgressor an intentional 
bearing on some other person. Is the sin, 
for example, covetousness ? It is the co- 
veting of the property of a specific indi- 
vidual. Is it envy, or malice, or robbery, 
or slander, or deceit? The sin is meditated 
or practised with a purpose of injury to 



67 

a particular person. Is it pride, or rival- 
ry ? It is directed against persons whom- 
the sinner contemplates as coming into 
comparison or competition with himself! 
Frequently too the sinner pursues his 
pfetti of evil in confederation with asso- 
ciates in the guilt. With the obviously 
requisite changes, all these positions may 
be in substance transferred to good ac- 
tions and good designs. These indispen- 
sable recollections are possessed by every 
individual placed before the tribunal 
of Christ. Of the persons whom they 
respect, all are standing oy the side of 
the offender, confronted with him, and 
giving an account before him of them- 
selves, as he in their presence is of him- 
self, to God. Every deed, every purpose, 
brought to judgement, is receiving suc- 
cessively its own measure of aggravation, 
or of extenuation, accordingly as the 
character of the deed or of the purpose 
is affected by reference to the earthly 
connections, attachments, separations^ 
and all the relative conditions and cir- 
cumstances, of the party by whom it was 
performed or planned, and the party on 



68 



whom it was intended to centre : parties 
reciprocally witnessing each as to the 
other every hidden action manifested, 
every secret of the heart revealed. 

Whether therefore human conscious- 
nesses and remembrances will survive the 
grave, whether persons divided by death 
will recognize one another in the future 
world, is no longer a question. Before 
the throne of the Judge the recollections 
are perfect, the recognitions complete. 
If the recollections and the recognitions 
are not to be thenceforward prolonged 
into eternity j they must be extinguished, 
subsequently to the day of Judgement, by 
a special interposition and act of Omni- 
potence. The only question, then, which 
can remain is this : Have we any reason 
to suppose that the Almighty, by a spe- 
cial act of power, will interpose and ex- 
tinguish them ? It is not, I apprehend, 
undue boldness to affirm, that, from the 
beginning to the end of the Bible, there 
is not a line which intimates any such 
purpose in the Deity: and that there are 
numerous passages in the Scriptures which 
very strongly militate against the suppo- 



69 



sition that the purpose exists. If the word 
of God, having unequivocally averred the 
full existence and the essential activity of 
the recollections and recognitions on the 
day of Judgement had presented no other 
passage from which any inference, direct 
or indirect, affirmative or negative, could 
be deduced as to their subsequent continu- 
ance ; the idea of their extinction would 
be almost beyond expression improbable. 
For what would the opinion include? It 
would include the following proposition : 
that Christian friends, having been re- 
united with the most lively consciousness 
before the tribunal of their gracious Re- 
deemer, having interchanged their trans- 
ports on their reunion, on their associated 
entrance into everlasting glory, on their 
victory over every ramification of the 
power of death, who once had separated 
their intercourse in the lower world, are 
now destined in a region where change, 
as they had been instructed, would be un- 
known, to experience as it were a second 
stroke of death : and after their momen- 
tary rapture, and in the midst of their 
undoubting anticipations looking forward 



70 

throughout eternity, to be practically .arid 
for ever separated from the beloved com- 
panions whom they had actually regained. 
Shall punishment, abiding punishment. 
be thus intermingled with the bliss wiiicL 
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it 
entered into the heart of man to conceive? 
Shall an anticipated part, and accord- 
ing to our best and holiest feelings a most 
justly valued ingredient, of eternal happi- 
ness be thus given by a God of love with 
one hand, and forthwith taken away for 
ever by the same God with the ether? 
The suppositions are utterly impossible. 
In prospectively contemplating the m- 
ture of the day of Judgement, while our 
ideas may be in a certain degree assisted 
by the analogy which in some points will 
subsist, if heavenly proceedings may for 
illustration be compared with transactions 
on earth, between that aweful tribunal, and 
a human judicature ; we are in danger of 
being greatly misled by forgetting that, 
in one most important point, there is m>t 
the slightest similarity between them as 
to the object in view. In human judica- 
tures, a principal purpose of the trial is 



71 

to discover the truth of facts ; to elicit 
from the witnesses the information neces- 
sary to enable the appointed judges, what- 
ever be their denomination or their form 
of process, to decide whether the person 
accused did or did not commit the crime 
laid to his charge. At the divine tribu- 
nal, no such purpose can have a place. 
Every thing is already clear, has ever been 
clear, to Omniscience. Actions, words, 
thoughts, ail have already been recorded. 
The purpose of the day of Judgement is 
not to inform the Judge j is not to qua- 
lify Him to pronounce a righteous sen- 
tence. It is to prove to every individual 
in the innumerable myriads of assembled 
men and angels, the justice and the holi- 
ness of the Judge in the sentence which 
he has already pronounced; in the sen- 
tence which, as the parable of the rich man 
and Lazarus in conformity with other pas- 
sages of Scripture intimates, he has already 
begun to carry into execution, even from 
the moment of the death of the person 
whose lot it decides. In the most copi- 
ous of the accounts contained in the New 
Testament of the proceedings of thelast 



72 

day, (Matth. xxv. 31 — 46.) the Judge, 
when all nations are collected before him, 
is represented as commencing the judge- 
ment, not by enquiry and examination, 
but by an authoritative separation of the 
multitude into two classes, the righteous 
and the wicked, followed by an immedi- 
ate promulgation of the sentence on each 
class: Come, ye blessed of my Father, in- 
herit the kingdom prepared for you — 
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlast- 
ing fire* Then proceeds a statement from 
himself of the particulars on which the 
sentence was founded. And subsequently 
comes the discussion of those particulars 
with the parties. From this scriptural 
view of the subject, we perceive afresh 
the indispensability of the fulness of hu- 
man recollections and recognitions in the 
persons assembled for Judgement. And 
we discern also a conclusive answer to 
the question which is sometimes proposed : 
If individuals are consigned immediately 
after death to their condition of happi- 
ness or of punishment for ever ; where is 
the necessity for a future day of Judge- 
ment? 



78 

As the recollections and recognitions 
have been shown to be requisite, in order 
to evince to the universe, according to 
the condescending purpose of the Al- 
mighty Judge, the equity of every sen- 
tence pronounced by him ; so the con- 
tinuance of them appears very important 
towards securing the complete and per- 
petual effect of the sentence in the case 
of each individual. For how can the 
righteous manifest, throughout eternity, 
feelings of gratitude corresponding to the 
mercies of redeeming love ; how can they 
pour forth due praises to God their Savi- 
our for the inheritance of glory in which 
he has established them ; unless they re- 
tain a vivid remembrance of those events 
in their earthly existence, without a re- 
ference to which, according both to the 
general nature of the circumstances, and 
to their diversity in the cases of different 
individuals, the transcendent richness of 
the divine mercy and bounty cannot be 
appreciated ? And amidst the flame that 
is never quenched, are not such recollec- 
tions constituent parts of the worm that 
never dies ? 



74 

There remains to be produced from the 
New Testament, another set of passages 
connected with the proceedings of the 
last day, and corroborating the conclu- 
sions to which the consideration of those 
proceedings has guided us : texts, name- 
ly, which describe, with prospective views 
to that day, the feelings of the Apostles 
and of their successors in the Christian 
ministry towards the people entrusted to 
their care. 

Heb. xiii. 17. 

" Obey them that have the rule over 
" you, and submit yourselves ; for they 
" watch for your souls as they that must 
" give account ; that they may do it with 
" joy and not with grief: for that would 
" be unprofitable for you." 

Col. i. 28. 
" Whom we preach, warning every 
" man and teaching every man in all wis- 
" dom ; that we may present every man 
" perfect in Christ Jesus." 

Philipp. i. 15, 16. iv. 1. 
" That ye may be blameless and harm- 
M less, the sons of God without rebuke, 
" in the midst of a crooked and per- 






75 

" verse nation, among whom ye shine 
" as lights in the world, holding forth 
" the word of life; that I may rejoice in 
" the day of Christ, that I have not run 
" in vain, neither laboured in vain." 

" Therefore, my brethren, dearly be- 
" loved and longed for, my joy and 
" crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my 
46 dearly beloved." 

2 Cor. i. 14. iv. 14. 

44 As also ye have acknowledged us 
44 in part, that we are your rejoicing; 
" even as ye also are ours in the day of 
44 the Lord Jesus." 

44 Knowing that He which raised up 
" the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also 
" by Jesus, and shall present us with 
"you." 

1 Thess. ii. 19, 20. 

" For what is our hope, or joy, or 
11 crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye, 
" in the presence of our Lord Jesus 
" Christ at his coming ? For ye are our 
" glory and joy." 

These passages evince, beyond the 
possibility of doubt, the universal recog- 
E 2 



76 

iiition which shall subsist before the tri- 
bunal of our Lord between the preachers 
of the gospel, and the attendants upon 
their earthly ministry ; and the complete 
remembrance which both parties will 
preserve of the leading occurrences, by 
which the exercise of the ministry, and 
the hearing of the word, were in each 
instance characterised. 



77 



CHAP. VI. 

ON DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS RESPECTING 
THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE WHICH HAS BEEN 
DEVELOPED. 

Vv hen we consider the number of the 
passages in the Scriptures which teach 
us that Christian friends shall be reunited 
beyond the grave with their ancient con- 
sciousnesses and remembrances, and the 
plainness and the decision with which 
many of the passages establish the posi- 
tion ; we may with reason wonder that 
doubt should so frequently have been 
intimated on the subject. The causes 
which have impelled some persons nearly, 
or altogether, to reject the truth in ques- 
tion, and have influenced others, and 
occasionally men of eminence in the 
Christian world, to admit it with apparent 
slowness and hesitation, may be reduced 
to two. First, the apprehension that, if 
remembrances and consciousnesses re- 
main, recollections unwelcome and dur- 
e 3 



78 

ably injurious to felicity will necessarily 
present themselves to the minds of glori- 
fied spirits, even respecting their dearest 
friends. Secondly, forebodings concern- 
ing pain to be excited by discovering, 
should such be the event, the absence of 
certain relatives or former associates from 
the kingdom of God ; pain embittered by 
the inevitable inference that the absent 
individuals have been consigned to per- 
dition. 

The two sources of dread may advan- 
tageously be noticed separately. 

The observation which seems the most 
obvious on the first of these causes of 
apprehension, is the following : that the 
same reasoning ought still more forcibly to 
press those who advance it, to doubt or to 
deny that in the world to come they 
shall preserve any remembrance of their 
former selves, any consciousness of per- 
sonal identity. So deeply has every 
man been stained with inward and out- 
ward transgression ; so much more inti- 
mate is the knowledge which each of us 
possesses of his own multiplied sins, and of 
theirvarious aggravations, than that which 



79 

he can have attained as to the offences 
of his friends, that if the remembrance 
of offences of others must involve a dimi- 
nution of heavenly felicity, much more 
grievous to him must be the conse- 
quences of recollecting his own. Yet, 
without recollections and recognitions, 
how can the individual know himself to 
be the same being that he was on earth; 
or that he ever was an inhabitant of 
earth ; that he ever obeyed or disobeyed 
his God in a state of mortality; that he 
ever sought for redemption through the 
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, or heard 
the sound of the gospel ? 

Farther: the full recognition, which, 
in the world to come, is to take place 
between Christian friends, does not ap- 
pear necessarily to include all the par- 
ticulars in their human intercourse. In 
the progress of long-continued friend- 
ships upon earth, how many circum- 
stances, satisfactory or undesirable, occur, 
of which in the later periods of friend- 
ship the remembrance is mutually obli- 
terated ? It is not beyond the limits of 
reasonable conjecture to imagine that 
e 4 



80 

there may be various recollections which, 
after having answered their appropriate 
purposes at the tribunal of the last day, 
may not be essential to invigorate the 
gratitude, and to animate the praises of 
the righteous throughout eternity; and 
may, therefore, be permitted by the God 
of heaven at once to fade away. 

Still farther. Recollections of unwel- 
come events and incidents, in most cases, 
owe a large proportion of their grievous- 
ness to the actual importance of the 
interests involved in the transactions. How 
many proceedings on the part of others 
have there been, to which, though for 
some months, possibly for several years, 
after these occurrences, our minds could 
not return to them without very keen sen- 
sations of sorrow, yet when a longer in- 
terval shall have sobered our ideas of the 
extent of the evil designed or at first 
occasioned, or new circumstances shall 
have mitigated or extinguished its effects, 
we advert withoutemotion ; andeven when 
the proceedings which we witnessed were 
deliberate deeds of wickedness, the ori- 
ginal guilt of which no lapse of time can 



81 



affect ? Yet, if we live to see the indivi- 
dual a thoroughly changed character, a 
real servant of Christ, proving his faith 
by persevering antipathy to sin, and by 
practical and habitual holiness ; the sting 
of memory has lost its point, the transient 
recollection, should it chance to cross our 
thoughts, of the former transgressions of 
the now established penitent abolishes 
itself in contemplations which it has it- 
self excited, contemplations overflowing 
with thankfulness and joy. In the man- 
sions of blessedness above, when all earth- 
ly competitions and jealousies, and other 
causes of offence which infested mortal- 
ity, shall have disappeared with their 
objects from the face of the universe ; 
when no interests of a prior existence 
shall retain importance in recollection, 
except those which have already realised 
themselves in eternal glory ; when, if an 
antecedent misdeed of an inhabitant of 
that blissful world be remembered by his 
associates in bliss, it is the forgiven mis- 
deed of a just man now made perfect, 
now washed in the blood, and arrayed in 
the righteousness of his Redeemer j now 
e 5 



82 



rendered equal unto the angels ; now 
made like unto the Son of God : where 
is the painfulness of recollection ? 

In addition to all these remarks, and 
far above any and all of them, let us con- 
sider the Lord Almighty. Do not ye err, 
said our Saviour to the Sadducees, because 
ye know not the power of God? Ye there- 
fore do greatly err. Let us repose on 
Omnipotence. With God all things are 
possible. The recollections abiding with 
the spirits itt bliss are ordained, in com- 
mon with every other circumstance of 
their condition, to promote their felicity. 
The arm of the Lord is not shortened in 
heaven. His counsel shall stand. He 
will accomplish that which he has pur- 
posed. The blessedness of his saints shall 
be like its Author, without variableness, 
or shadow of turning. The gift shall be 
like the Giver, and, according to His pro- 
mise, perfect. 

To the second of the sources of appre- 
hension which have been specified, some 
of the preceding observations are not ir- 
relevant. In addition to them, it is allow- 
able to suggest the possibility that the 






83 



spirits of the righteous may not perma- 
nently remain subject to recollections 
concerning individuals excluded from 
the kingdom of God. We know not 
whether it may not be determined in the 
counsels of the Most High, that they who 
are punished with everlasting destruc- 
tion from the presence of the Lord and 
from the glory of his power, shall spee- 
dily cease to have a name and remem- 
brance in the bosoms of the dwellers in 
eternal bliss. 

But assume the recollection of the lost 
to continue in heaven. Consider other 
recollections and feelings with which it 
must invariably be accompanied. It can- 
not, in a single instance, present itself 
without recollections also of the unsullied 
justice and holiness of God in the sever- 
est inflictions of his penal wrath ; nor 
without sentiments of profound and duti- 
ful acquiescence in every appointment of 
Infinite Perfection. Let us reflect that 
God is love : that he willed not the death 
of sinners : that he ordained and mea- 
sured their just punishment: that the in- 
fliction of it lessens not His happiness : 
e 6 



S4 



that the knowledge of it may, therefore, 
be so attempered with holy feelings in 
the breasts of the dwellers in heaven, that 
it may not impair their felicity • Is any 
difficulty yet unremoved ? With God all 
things are possible. Let us repose ou 
Omnipotence. 









85 



CHAP. VII. 

APPLICATION OF THE SUBJECT. 

The tendency of the investigation which 
has been pursued, does not terminate in 
the desire, natural to man, and unblam- 
able while reverently confined within its 
lawful range, to obtain some degree of 
additional insight within the veil, which 
overspreads the regions of futurity. The 
conclusions to which we have been con- 
ducted are replete with admonition and 
with encouragement. 

Christian friends, re-united in the 
realms above, shall meet one another 
with complete and lively consciousness 
of their reciprocal attachment upon earth ; 
and with such recollections of the inci- 
dents of their mortal intercourse, as shall 
enhance the blessedness of eternity. This 
is the suggestion of reason : this is the 
testimony of the Scriptures. 

How mercifuilv vouchsafed, and how 



86 



wisely calculated, are these assurances 
from the Supreme Disposer of our lot, to 
console his true servants, when they be- 
hold a beloved companion, also his true 
servant, declining under the pressure of 
sickness, or deposited in the grave ! The 
loss is no longer for eternity. The sus- 
pension of intercourse is but for the re- 
mainder of the life of the survivor. The 
individual removed is the forerunner of 
those who remain. He has reached the 
end of the journey a little sooner than 
his fellow-travellers : and is awaiting them 
at the place of repose, towards which they 
are every moment advancing. Let the 
bereaved mourner persevere in his reli- 
gious path, and the severed ties shall be 
rejoined. The restored connection shall 
be indissoluble. Misapprehension, compe- 
tition, coolness, vicissitude, doubt, fear, 
are no more. The sun of affection shall 
no more be dimmed by earthly mists 
and exhalations. It shines for ever with 
increasing lustre, pure as the new heavens 
in which it is enthroned. United feelings, 
associated pursuits, conjoined admiration 
of the works of God, participated delight 



87 

in his dispensations, blend the renewed 
attachments into continually augmented 
firmness. The blessedness of one friend 
becomes the blessedness of the rest. The 
bliss of all is enlarging itself by recipro- 
city through never-ending ages. 

On earth every thing bears the stamp 
of the original fall of man. The native 
stain of sin is not wholly discharged from 
the body of corruption, even by the puri- 
fying but restricted streams of divine 
grace. If fruits apparently akin to those 
which, had our first parents retained their 
innocence, might have been produced In 
Paradise, adorn the living faith of the 
Christian ; they still are blemished, and 
deteriorated by the ungenial climate in 
which they grow. It is not very uncom- 
mon to be familiarly acquainted with cha- 
racters in which, while we perceive with 
joy that religion has made important pro- 
gress, and noble indications are from time 
to time discernible of a heart fixed on 
better things than those below, we can- 
not but lament manifestations of uncon- 
quered evil, and struggles of some deeply- 
seated passion or propensity pushing for 



88 



the recovery of its lost dominion over the 
soul. We say within ourselves ; How is 
thatpenetrating intellect occasionally per- 
verted by a thirst for distinction and by 
the love of the world ! How are those high 
qualities debased by the recurring in- 
trusion of vanity! How are those 
glowing emanations of piety obscured, 
how are those deeds of practical holi- 
ness interrupted, by relapses into an- 
cient habits, maxims, and views! What, 
we ask ourselves, shall be the end of these 
things? On which side will the waver- 
ing heart fix itself? Shall nature or grace 
prevail? Let the choice be supposed to 
rest on living to Christ, and by his power 
an entrance to be won into the kingdom of 
God. What will be the rejoicing of those 
friends, who through the same power have 
obtained admission into the same king- 
dom, when they behold in that indivi- 
dual in whom they delighted, yet for 
whom they trembled, upon earth, all that 
was fluctuating established, all that was 
inconsistent expelled, all that was incom- 
plete perfected ! 

But joy will not be limited to the re- 



89 

union of earthly friends. The servant of 
God may have had enemies. To no one 
of his fellow-travellers upon earth will he 
have remained an enemy: but there may 
have been those who continued adversa- 
ries to him. Collision with him in worldly 
transactions, offence wrongly taken on 
account of some of his proceedings, bit- 
terness against him on the ground of some 
of his religious opinions; nay, aversion 
to him arising from antipathy to religion 
itself; may have led many persons to re- 
gard him with deep and watchful animo- 
sity. But in the gradual lapse of life, and 
under the transforming operation of divine 
grace upon the heart, certain at least, per- 
haps even all, of these hostile individuals 
may have discerned their errors, may have 
perceived of what spirit they themselves 
have been, may have deplored and re- 
nounced their enmity : not openly, it may 
be, to the object of it, for he may already 
have been removed to his rest ; but be- 
fore that God, who through the blood of 
a Redeemer pardons the contrite. At 
this hour there is joy in heaven among 
the angels of God over every sinner that 



90 

repenteth. How similar will be the joy 
of the righteous man made equal unto the 
angels, when he welcomes, in the host of 
the children of the resurrection, those 
who formerly pursued him with unmerit- 
ed hatred, but are now to dwell with him 
in the harmony of brethren, in pure and 
perpetual love ! 

Since in the world to come departed 
spirits are to meet each other, mutually 
possessed of so many consciousnesses and 
recollections ; how important an object 
does it become to every one so to con- 
duct himself in the present life, that his 
reunion with former associates may excite 
not pangs and reproaches in his own heart, 
but emotions of holy gratitude and de- 
light ! Who can estimate how large a 
portion of the character of any given in- 
dividual has depended on other persons? 
On most topics, a hasty estimate is com- 
monly extravagant: on this subject it 
would fall below the truth. From infancy 
almost or altogether to old age, the modes 
in which we are operating, designedly or 
undesignedly, on the dispositions, princi- 
ples, and actions of others, are multifari- 



91 



ous : and, under different forms, the pro- 
cess is continually at work. It begins 
with education through the medium of 
parents, and successive superintendents 
and instructors of various denominations 
and offices, all more or less influential, 
and extending to the confines of mam 
hood. Effects, at least as strong and as 
enduring, have in the mean time been 
added by example witnessed at home, by 
companions at school, or at a university, or 
in the regiment, or in the ship, or in the 
counting-house, or in the manufactory, 
or in the shop, or the station, whatever it 
may be, in which the youth is profes- 
sionally placed. Views as to religion, poli- 
tical prepossessions, the love of literature 
or disregard of knowledge, the habit of 
industry or of idleness, of profusion or of 
frugality, of self-indulgence or of self-com- 
mand, and all the other inward and discri- 
minating features of man, are forming or 
strengthening under the bias of evil com- 
munication, which corrupts all the rudi- 
ments of that which is good ; or of religious 
intercourse, which, under the benignant 
grace of God, is one of the most power- 



92 

Ful instruments of cherishing the seeds of 
holiness implanted by that grace, and of 
forwarding them in their advance towards 
maturity. This description may be, in 
substance, carried onward through the 
course of the succeeding years, and 
through the medium of the new associ- 
ates of the individual; and particularly 
of those companions with whom he be- 
comes more closely united by matrimonial 
connection, by congeniality of pursuits, 
by frequency of co-operation in business, 
or even by mere vicinity : and does not 
wholly cease to be applicable until he is 
sinking into the grave. It is true that 
all these ingredients of counsel and ex- 
ample ought to be considered by the 
young man, in proportion as he attains 
ability to exercise his judgement upon 
them, as raw materials brought before 
him for selection, in order that he may 
studiously and conscientiously interweave 
such of them as are excellent into the 
fabric of his own character, and reso- 
lutely reject the rest; and that the ha- 
bitual fulfilment or the neglect of this 
momentous duty will constitute a very 



98 

awful portion of his account of the day of 
retribution. We cannot, however, but 
perceive by experience how large a mea- 
sure of the baser part of these materials is' 
snatched up in the gross by the generality 
of mankind, and incorporated into the 
texture of their mind and conduct. But 
if others stand responsible, each as to him- 
self, for the use which they shall have 
made of the materials laid before them ; 
we shall ourselves have to answer, at the 
tribunal of our Lord, for the materials 
which we have individually furnished to 
other men. We shall have to welcome 
the transports, or to sustain the cutting 
lamentations, of those, to whose felicity 
we have ministered, or whose condemna- 
tion we have encreased. What, on that 
great and universal day of assembly, will 
be the feelings of the parent when he 
contemplates his child, then beheld stand- 
ing to receive the everlasting sentence, 
whom he assiduously trained for the pur- 
suits of mortal life, but negligently, 
as to the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord ? What will be the sensations of 
the man of learning, who advanced 



94 

his pupils, now before him at the tribunal 
of Christ, to be eminent scholars, but not 
to be wise and spiritual Christians ! What 
will be the sinking of heart of the man of 
business, whose ordinary conversation 
and proceedings were calculated to incite 
his associates to seek first the treasures of 
the earth, not the kingdom of God, and 
his righteousness ? How shall the ambi- 
tious man sustain himself, when he sees, 
face to face, those whom his society had 
ensnared to thirst for power and pre-emi- 
nence, instead of desiring that honour 
which comethfrom God only ? What shall 
uphold the votary of the world, who in- 
fused into the breasts of those with whom 
he had intercourse on earth the princi- 
ples of action, the rules of moral judge- 
ment, the motives, the maxims, the cus- 
toms, and the spirit of the world, even 
that very friendship of the world which is 
enmity against God, in the place of the 
principles of action, the rules of moral 
judgement, the motives, the maxims, the 
commandments, and the spirit of the 
pure, unbending, and unalterable Gos- 
pel ? Reverse the representation. How 
16 



95 

exquisite will be the delight of those bless- 
ed individuals, who having been led to 
approve things that are excellent, to bring 
all things to the criterion of the law and 
the testimony, to measure every thing by 
the scriptural standard, have laboured, 
and with a view habitually directed also 
to the welfare of others, to adorn the 
doctrine of God their Saviour in all 
things; to guard their own conversation 
no less than their actions 'from affording 
even incidental countenance to any thing 
unchristian in its spirit or its tendency ; 
and to diffuse among all with whom they 
were associated, whether by the noiseless 
eloquence of example, or by the gen- 
tle efficacy of unobtrusive, yet conside- 
rate, discreet, and interesting discourse, 
an universal application of religion, an 
universal reference to the revealed will of 
God, an universal imitation of the mind 
which was in Christ Jesus, of the example 
which he traced before us as our pattern ! 
Of the effects briefly stated in the one or 
in the other of these representations, each 
of us will probably discern at the day of 
Judgement an amount which he was not 



96 



prepared to anticipate as produced by 
himself, influencing the eternal condition 
of. those with whom he associated upon 
earth; and exercising a corresponding in- 
fluence, if not in deciding the alternative 
of misery or of happiness to himself, yet 
in fixing for eternity the degree of merit- 
ed punishment or of gracious reward, 



97 



ESSAY II. 

ON ATTESTATIONS FURNISHED IN THE BI- 
BLE TO ITS OWN TRUTH, BY REMARK- 
ABLE OMISSIONS AND INSERTIONS. 



CHAP. I. 



When a writer of the historical class, 
and manifestly a person of good sense, 
habitually omits in his narrative a large 
variety of particulars intimately connect- 
ed with his subject j such as he cannot 
but perceive to be adapted universally to 
interest his readers; such also, that no 
reason for the omission can be discover- 
ed, except a supposed persuasion, on his 
part, that his book will be more useful 
without them: the circumstance speaks 
strongly in favour of his integrity. If the 
same writer be also found not unfre- 



98 



quently to introduce statements of al- 
leged facts, which not only appear not 
to be essential to the general object of 
the history, but obviously present diffi- 
culties and grounds of objection ; and 
yet should accompany them with little 
developement, or leave them totally un- 
explained: we should say, " This mode 
" of proceeding is an additional confir- 
" mation of his veracity. 5 ' A forger of 
very moderate discernment would either 
have forborne to encumber himself witl% 
fictions useless or unimportant to his 
plan, and dangerous to his credit: or 
would have invented and appended such 
a kind and measure of explication as 
should prevent them from exciting sus- 
picions against his character and his pur- 
pose. If a number of writers of the 
same description as the first should suc- 
cessively be engaged during a long series 
of years in the continuation of the origi- 
nal work ; and should exhibit in their se- 
veral portions of the composition the 
same cause of conduct, which has been 
attributed to the individual who began 
the history : the integrity of the whole 



99 



body and the veracity of the book would 
thus be powerfully attested. Still more 
would the attestations be strengthened, if 
the work were thus continued during ten 
or fifteen centuries. 

It is intended now to apply these posi- 
tions in confirmation of the integrity of 
the sacred writers, and the veracity of 
the Bible. The authenticity and truth of 
the Scriptures are unquestionably to be 
rested by the Christian on their own ap- 
propriate and direct evidence, historical 
and internal. But, as the first of these 
branches of testimony does not despise 
indirect corroboration from facts record- 
ed with more or less of precision in pro- 
fane history : so the latter derives an ac- 
cession of support from each of those 
circumstances observable in the structure 
of the work itself which would be ad- 
mitted as enhancing the credibility of a 
merely human composition. 

I proceed to subjoin some examples, 
which may be sufficient to illustrate these 
observations ; and may excite attention to 
the variety of analogous instances, which 
will be discerned in the Old and in the 
f 2 



100 

New Testament, by individual readers in 
their private study of the Scriptures. 
Genesis, v. 5. 

" And all the days that Adam lived 
" were nine hundred and thirty years ; 
" and he died." 

The scantiness of the particulars re- 
corded concerning the life of our Saviour, 
antecedently to the commencement of his 
public ministry, has justly been remarked 
as bearing witness to the integrity of the 
Evangelists. Who is there among Chris- 
tians that would not feel the deepest in- 
terest in learning, were it possible to at- 
tain the information, the leading inci- 
dents of our Saviour's youth, until he 
reached his thirtieth year ? Who would 
not rejoice to contemplate some, at least, 
of the more striking manifestations of the 
holiest affections, of the more than mor- 
tal wisdom, which assuredly broke forth 
abundantly throughout that period, in the 
discourse and in the conduct of Jesus : 
some of those gleamings of divinity, which 
were the earnest of the glory afterwards 
displayed by him before his apostles, 
glory belonging to no one but to the 



101 

Only^begotten of the Father, full of 
grace and truth ? Yet from the time of 
his return as an infant from Egypt to the 
day when, as a preparatory step to the 
immediate proclaiming of the Gospel, he 
received the baptism of John ; the ac- 
count of his being found by his parents 
in the temple, at the age of twelve years, 
in the midst of the Jewish teachers, hear- 
ing them, and proposing questions to 
them, and astonishing them by his know- 
ledge and understanding, is the only 
memorial of any transaction or discourse 
of the Son of God. Nay, even in the 
statements of his proceedings from the 
opening of his ministry to his ascension 
into heaven, there is the most pointed 
abstinence from amplification. That 
which is requisite is briefly said ; and 
nothing is superadded. This silence on 
the part of the Evangelists is diametri- 
cally opposite to imposture. It is that 
which the fabricator of a fictitious his« 
tory, intended to gain credit as a narra- 
tive of real events, would never have 
adopted. A writer of that character, and 
with those views, would have laboured 
f 3 



102 

to excite interest by copious details; by 
studied descriptions respecting the prin- 
cipal figure in the work ; by bringing 
him forward from the early part of his 
life, in a variety of incidents; and by 
blazoning the talents and the virtues ex* 
hibited by him in every situation. This 
is the natural process of imposition. It 
is the process which was pursued by 
writers, who, at a later period, endea- 
voured to circulate among the primitive 
Christians fabricated histories of Christ, 
or of his apostles. 

From the beginning of the New Tes- 
tament, turn back to the commencement 
of the Old. The same indications of 
veracity, which we have contemplated in 
Saint Matthew and the other three bio- 
graphers of our Lord, meet us in the 
author of the book of Genesis ; and are 
prolonged throughout every book of the 
Jewish Scriptures. If ever there was a 
mere man concerning whom general 
curiosity must always have been alive, it 
was Adam. The first man ; the first in- 
habitant of a new globe ; the original 
father of every human being, except 



103 

Eve ; the only dweller, the common mo* 
ther of all excepted, in paradise ; subse- 
quently ejected into a world changed in 
its nature, to suffer calamity, the conse- 
quence of his transgression; and to guard 
himself by new modes of life and new 
inventions of incipient art against cold 
and hunger, and the wild beasts of the 
wilderness ; to protract his life to nine 
hundred and thirty years, beholding the 
evil which he had introduced upon earth 
diffusing itself in countless forms among 
his posterity, yet solacing himself in an- 
ticipations for his descendents and for 
himself of that predicted Deliverer, by 
whom the head of the serpent should be 
bruised and all generations should be 
blessed. How many sources are here of 
wonder, and of sympathy ! What mate- 
rials for sublime delineations, for touch- 
ing recitals, for novelty, for .discovery, 
for transactions to call into exercise, and 
to sustain, and to gratify, every emotion 
of the heart ! The author who wrote the 
history of Joseph needed not to have 
doubted, had he been a forger, nor would 
F 4 



104 

he have doubted, his power to work upon 
human passions and affections. Yet what 
course does he pursue? What display- 
does he lay before men of the life of 
their progenitor ? After the three first 
chapters of Genesis, in which is included 
an account of the creation and of the 
fall of Adam, of the sentence pronounced 
upon him, and of his expulsion from the 
garden of Eden, the birth of three of his 
sons is mentioned in the fourth chapter: 
and in the beginning of the fifth chapter 
Moses dismisses from his notice the great 
patriarch of mankind with a simple 
statement that, after the birth of Seth, 
Adam had other sons and daughters, and 
that at the age of nine hundred and thirty 
years he died. For this brevity and si- 
lence no natural or probable reason can 
be assigned except one, which marks the 
integrity of the historian : that he knew 
that the volume of Scripture would be 
unfitted for its office, as the daily manual 
of faith and practice to every individual, 
in proportion as it should be encumbered 
and swelled by long and unnecessary de- 



105 

tails respecting even the most eminent 
characters whom it should commemorate* 
Hence it is that throughout the books of 
all the remaining inspired writers in the 
Old Testament, the reference to the first 
man in Hosea, vi. 7« where the marginal 
translation, " like Adam," seems mani- 
festly the correct rendering ; and the ex- 
pression of Job # , If I covered my trans- 
gressions, as Adam, by hiding mine 
iniquity in my bosom; are perhaps the 
only passages in which he is named. He 
is mentioned about six times in the New 
Testament ; and without any additional 
information respecting him. 

In the same manner as the book of 
Acts, and the succeeding portions of 
the New Testament, convey so little in- 
telligence respecting the actions, the suf- 
ferings, the scenes of labour, and the 
modes and times of death, of the apostles, 
in general ; the Old Testament is equally 
sparing of occurrences in the lives of Seth 
and of Enoch, and of Noah, (of the first 
four hundred and eighty years of whose 
* Job, xxxi. 33. 
F 5 



106 

life no particular is specified*,) and of 
most of the prophets. The principle of 
forbearance was, in both divisions of 
Scripture, the same. The opposite fea- 
tures of truth and of falsehood may be 
contrasted, by comparing the composi- 
tions of the sacred penmen with the le- 
gendary histories of Romish saints. 

The reasoning which has been ad- 
vanced is confirmed by the discourage- 
ment with which our Saviour repeatedly 
checked unedifying curiosity respecting 
events abstractedly interesting, and refer- 
ring to a future world, or awaiting on 
earth his own apostles. When he was 
interrogated whether there were few that 
should be saved ; he replied by the per- 
sonal admonition, Strive to enter in at the 
strait gate. When, for a special purpose 
he had declared that Peter would die 
by crucifixion, for the sake of the Master 
whom he had so lately denied, and the 

* Noah might be apprised of the flood one hun- 
dred and twenty years before it happened ; and 
was six hundred years old when it occurred. Gen. 
vi. 3- vii. 6. 



107 

apostle proceeded to enquire what should 
befal John ; our Lord answered, If I will 
that he tarry till I come, what is that to 
thee ? * 

Deut. iii. 11. 

" For only Og, king of Bashan, re- 
" mained of the remnant of the giants. 
" Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of 
" iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the chil- 
<< dren of Ammon ? Nine cubits was the 
" length thereof, and four cubits the 
" breadth of it, after the cubit of a 
" man." 

The Israelites, in the fortieth year after 
their departure from Egypt, arrived on 
the frontiers of Bashan. And Og, the 
King of Bashan, went out against them, he 
and all his people, to the battle ofEdrei. 
And the Lord said unto Moses, " Fear him 
not ; for I have delivered him into thy 
hand, and all his people, and his land ; 
and thou shalt do to him as thou didst to 
Sihon, king of the Amorites, which dwelt at 
Heshbon." So they smote him, and his 
sons, and all his people, until there was 

* Luke, xiii. 24; John, xxi. 18. 22. 
F 6 



108 

none left him alive ; and they possessed 
his land. * 

Of the instances of miraculous protec- 
tion vouchsafed to the Israelites, after 
their passage through the Red Sea to their 
entrance into Canaan, no one seems to 
have made a more general impression at 
the time, nor to have been held in more 
lively remembrance by succeeding gene- 
rations, than the conquest and destruction 
of Og and his army.t One of the chief 
circumstances which rendered this vic- 
tory so memorable, was the gigantic sta- 
ture of Og. It also appears probable, 
that, besides the sons, and perhaps other 
relatives of Og, who might resemble him 
in pre-eminent altitude, there might be 
many persons in his host who surpassed 
the height of common men. For all Ba- 
shan was called the land of giants, t In 
early ages, when the decision of battles 
between contending armies depended 
mainly on personal conflicts, hand to 

* Numbers, xxi. 33. 35. 

f See Deut. xxxi. 4% Joshua, ii. 10. ix. 9. 10. 
Nehem. ix. 22. Psalm cxxxv. 11. cxxxvi. 20. 
% Deut. iii. 13. 



109 

hand, from the commander to the soldier ; 
supernatural size, accompanied with ex- 
traordinary strength, was an object of 
admiration and of terror. Of this fact 9 
examples abound in the Old Testament. 
Before the deluge, there were giants in 
the earth, mighty men of old, men of re- 
nown.* The Emims, who were vanquish- 
ed by Chedarlaomer and his allies, were 
a people tall as the Anakims, which also 
were accounted giants A When ten of the 
spies, who had been dispatched by Moses 
to examine the country of Canaan, 
brought up an evil report of the land which 
they had searched, they concluded it with 
this alarming statement : All the people 
that we saw in it are men of a great stature: 
and there we saw the giants, the sons of 
Anak^which comeof the giants ; and we were 
in our oxvn sight as grasshoppers, and so 
we were in their sight.% Concerning these 
terrific warriors it was proverbially said ; 
Who can stand before the children of 
Anak ? § In the days of Saul and David, 
we meet Goliath and his brethren. But 

* Gen. vi. 4. f Gen. xiv. 5. Deut. ii. 10, 11. 
\ Numbers, xiii. 32, 33, § Deut. ix. 2* 



110 

of all the individuals of portentous bulk, 
who are specifically noticed in the Scrip- 
tures, Og appears to have been the most 
gigantic. The stature of Goliath was six 
cubits and a span. The length of the 
bedstead of Og was nine cubits ; an extent 
which, though it does not enable us de- 
finitely to aver what was the height of the 
king of Bashan, implies an altitude supe- 
rior to that of the Philistine. The par- 
ticular passage relative to Og, which is 
of importance to the argument of the 
present Essay, is the question of Moses, 
respecting this bedstead : Is it not in 
Rabbah of the children of Amnion? The 
question is, in other words, an appeal to 
the general knowledge of the Israelites, 
that at that very time, certainly not many 
months after the overthrow of Og # , the 
bedstead was in the possession of the 

* For various transactions and wars, in the for- 
tieth year after the departure from Egypt, and prior 
to the war with Og, are recorded, Numbers xx. xxu 
and after the destruction of Og, Moses began the 
Book of Deuteronomy, on the first day of the ele- 
venth month of that year, (Deut. i. 3, 4.) and died 
within the same year. 



Ill 

Ammonites, and deposited in Rabbah, 
their capital. Let me ask, then, whether 
it is conceivable, that any fabricator of 
a fictitious history of the Israelites, when 
he had described them as extirpating a 
gigantic adversary, named Og, with all 
his people, and seizing on this bedstead, 
the most signal memorial of his extraor- 
dinary size, would have so disposed of the 
trophy ? Would not his appeal have 
been ; Is it not in the midst of us, before 
our eyes, at this day? And, farther, let me 
ask, whether, if such a writer had made 
so extraordinary a disposal of the trophy, 
he would not have purposely assigned 
3ome explanation of the improbability; or 
have unintentionally disclosed that he 
had an object in transferring the bed- 
stead to Rabbah, by making some subse- 
quent use of the circumstance. To 
put an analogous case. Suppose an 
imaginary narrative to be published, 
professing to be the history of a short 
war between England and France writ- 
ten by the commander of the British 
army three months after the event. Sup- 
pose the history to represent the English 



112 

forces as completely victorious, Paris 
captured, the king slain, the country 
mastered, and the crown and regalia of 
the Bourbons triumphantly seized amidst 
the spoil. Would any man believe be- 
forehand, that the writer, instead of de- 
scribing the splendid trophies as deposit- 
ed in the Tower of London or in Carlton 
Palace, would proceed to say ; " Are not 
" they in the Imperial Cabinet at Vi- 
enna?" Or would any man believe, 
that the writer, after having determined 
on so improbable a collocation, would 
neither assign any reason for it, nor at- 
tempt to turn it to advantage in the pro- 
gress of his work ? But the imaginary 
case falls far short of the reality. For it 
is not only that Moses makes no subse- 
quent use whatever of the transfer of the 
bedstead of the king of Bashan to the 
Ammonites, nor gives any explanation 
as to the cause or the mode of their hav- 
ing obtained possession of it. On the 
contrary, he speedily adverts to transac- 
tions, one prior to the death of Og, the 
other immediately succeeding to it, which 
placed the people of Israel and the na- 



118 

tion of the Ammonites on the most hos- 
tile terms, each with the other, and thus 
added to the improbability of the re- 
moval of the trophy to Rabbah. While 
the children of an Edomite, or of an 
Egyptian, were to be received in the 
third generation into the congregation of 
the Lord ; An Ammonite, or a Moabite 9 
continues Moses% shall not enter into the 
congregation of the Lord ; even to their 
tenth generation shall they not enter into 
the congregation of the Lord for ever ; 
because they met you not xvith bread and 
"with water in the way, when ye came forth 
from JEgpyt ; and because they hired 
against thee Balaam, the son of Beor, of 
Pethor, of Mesopotamia, to curse thee* 
Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their 
prosperity all thy days for ever. It is 
manifest, that nothing but the simple 
fact, explicable, or inexplicable, by us* 
of the iron bedstead of Og being posi* 
tively at Rabbah, could have led Moses 
to affirm it to be there. A forger either 
would not have advanced so improbable 

* Deut. xxiii, 3 — 8. Nehem. xiii. 1, 2. 



114 

an assertion ; or would have appended 
some explanation of it; or would have be- 
trayed his premeditated object in placing 
the bedstead in the possession of the Am- 
monites, by subsequently turning the in- 
cident to advantage in a succeeding part 
of his book. 

This reasoning will not be shaken or 
impaired, though we should be able, cir- 
cuitously, to devise a train of causes, 
which might occasion the removal of the 
bedstead to Rabbah. A train of causes, 
wearing indications of verisimilitude, may 
be stated. Let it be considered, that after 
the victory over Og, the Israelitish host 
was to proceed, on foot, in a laborious 
march, with their wives and children, and 
with the herds, and flocks, and baggage, 
belonging to an immense multitude, 
through the wilderness, and along the 
confines of the hostile territory of Moab, 
towards the promised land. Let it be 
farther considered, how extremely in- 
commodious and difficult it would have 
been, during such a march, to drag, day 
by day, this enormous bedstead of iron, 
nine cubits in length, four cubits and a 



115 

half in breadth, and of proportionate 
thickness and weight : and how natural 
it would, in consequence, be, that the Is- 
raelites should prefer to abandon the tro- 
phy rather than load themselves with so 
ponderous and unprofitable an encum- 
brance. Thus the bedstead would be left 
behind in Bashan. Then, reflect how 
formidable and obnoxious a neighbour 
such a potentate as Og would be to con- 
tiguous states j and how reasonable is the 
conjecture, that he would be frequently or 
habitually at enmity with the Ammonites. 
If this were the case, the remaining 
inference is obviously not less probable ; 
that, after the departure of the armies of 
Israel, the Ammonites would come and 
carry away in triumph, to their own ca- 
pital, the deserted memorial of the bulk 
of their own ancient and dreaded foe. 

But this, or any similar explanation, 
forgery would not have left to be sup- 
posed. Truth might omit it : only truth 
would have omitted it. 

Deut. xxxii. 48 — 52. 

u And the Lord spake unto Moses that 
" self-same day, saying, Get thee up into 



116 

" this mountain Abarim, unto Mount 
" Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, 
" that is over against Jericho ; and be- 
" hold the land of Canaan, which 1 give 
" unto the children of Israel for a pos- 
" session. And die in the mount, whe- 
" ther thou goest up, and be gathered 
" unto thy people : as Aaron, thy brother, 
" died in Mount Hor, and was gathered 
" unto his people : because ye trespassed 
u against me among the children of Is- 
" rael at the water of Meribah-kadesh in 
" the wilderness of Zin ; because ye sanc- 
W tified me not in the midst of the chil- 
" dren of Israel. Yet thou shalt see the 
" land before thee : but thou shalt not 
" go thither." 

The original transaction, to which the 
words of Almighty God in this passage 
refer, had occurred about eleven months 
before ; and is narrated in the twentieth 
chapter of the Book of Numbers. From 
that narrative, the specific offence of 
Moses, in which Aaron also joined, is 
plain. The people of Israel, early in the 
fortieth year of their journey, finding no 
water in Kadesh, assailed Moses and 



117 

Aaron with daring murmurs and re- 
proaches. The Lord in consequence 
spake unto Moses , saying; Take the rod, 
and gather thou the assembly together, 
thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye 
unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall 
give forth its water, and thou shalt bring 
forth to them water out of the rock : so 
thou shalt give the congregation and their 
beasts drink. Moses and Aaron pro- 
ceeded to the rock : but in a frame of 
mind, as their subsequent language and 
conduct evinced, embittered by the treat- 
ment which they had experienced from the 
people, and disposed to assume a portion 
of glory to themselves, and to distrust 
the efficacy of the method, that of speak- 
ing to the rock, which God had prescribed 
and had promised to render effectual. 
They gathered together the congregation 
before the rock. And Moses said unto them, 
Hear now, ye rebels ; must we fetch you 
water out of this rock f And Moses lift 
up his hand, and with his rod he smote the 
rock twice. The rock poured forth water 
abundantly. But the sin of Moses and of 
Aaron, so presumptuous in itself, so mis- 



118 

chievous in the way of example, was to 
be followed by a signal proof of the 
divine displeasure. The Lord spake unto 
Moses and Aaron : Because ye believed 
me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the 
children of Israel ; therefore, ye shall not 
bring this congregation into the land which 
I have given them. Within four months 
afterwards the execution of the sentence 
began in the death of one of the offenders. 
The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, 
in Mount Hor, by the coast of the land of 
Edom, saying, Aaron shall be gathered 
unto his people : for he shall not enter into 
the land xvhich I have given unto the chil- 
dren of Israel, because ye rebelled against 
my "word at the water of Meribah.* 
Aaron died : and Moses was left alone 
to await the approaching completion of 
the same sentence upon himself. The 
judgement lay heavy on the heart of 
Moses. He repeatedly alludes to it, and 
with great feeling, in his public addresses 
to the people of Israel. When he had 
allotted the conquered kingdoms of Sihon 

* Numbers, xx. 23, 24% xxxiii. 38. 



119 

and of Og to the tribes of Reuben and 
Gad, and to a part of the tribe of Ma- 
nasseh ; he states his earnest but fruitless 
intercession with God for the revocation 
of the sentence. And I besought the 
Lord at that time, saying, O Lord God! 
Thou hast begun to show thy servant thy 
greatness, and thy mighty hand. For 
what God is there, in heaven or in earth, 
that can do according to thy works, and 
according to thy might? I pray thee let 
me go over and see the good land that is 
beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and 
Lebanon. But the Lord was wroth with 
me for your sakes, and would not hear 
me. And the Lord said unto me, Let it 
suffice thee : speak no more unto me of 
this matter. Get thee up into the top of 
Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, 
and northward, and southward, and east- 
ward, and behold it with thine eyes : for 
thou shaltnot go over this Jordan.* With- 
in a short space Moses recurs to the sub- 
ject. Furthermore, the Lord was angry 
with me for your sakes, and sware that I 
should not go over Jordan ; and that I 

* Deut. iii. 23—27. 



120 

should not go unto that good land, which 
the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inherit- 
ance. But I must die in this land: I 
must not go over Jordan.* On a suc- 
ceeding occasion he says ; / can no more 
go out and come in : also the Lord hath 
said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this 
Jordan, f The event rapidly drew near : 
The Lord said unto Moses : Behold, the 
days approach that thou must die. X This 
declaration was soon followed by the 
command delivered in the passage pre- 
fixed to this article. And the execution 
of it is recorded, probably by an addi- 
tion from the pen of Joshua, in the con- 
cluding chapter of the book of Deu- 
teronomy. The general transaction is 
noticed four hundred, years afterwards, 
in the book of Psalms. They angered 
Him, (the Lord God) also at the waters 
of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for 
their sakes : because they provoked his 
spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with 
his lips. § 

The observation to be made on the 

* Deut. iv. 21, 22. f Deut. xxxi. 2. 

% Deut. xxxi. 14. § Ps. cvi. 32, 33. 



121 

preceding recital is, that the whole account 
is irreconcilably at variance with every 
imaginable supposition, but that of truth 
in the statement and integrity in the 
writer. Is it conceivable that any his- 
torian, when committing to writing, on 
the verge of the grave, a narrative in- 
cluding the leading events of his own 
life, would falsely and gratuitously de- 
scribe himself as having at the close 
of his days the warmest of his earthly 
wishes for himself disappointed, by a sen- 
tence of death suddenly, and justly, and 
irrevocably pronounced against him, for 
a special transgression ? If such a repre- 
sentation be conceivable in an ordinary 
historian ; is it supposable in the case 
of a person circumstanced as Moses ? Is 
it within the bounds of credibility that 
Moses, after having interwoven, through- 
out the whole texture of his history, con- 
tinual testimonies of favour and of inti- 
mate and habitual communication vouch- 
safed to him by the living God, in man- 
ner and in measure unexampled as to 
any other individual of the human race, 
should needlessly and falsely describe 



himself as clouding his honours and for- 
feiting his life by presumption and un- 
belief; as prohibited from leading into 
the promised land of rest the people 
whom he conducted out of Egypt, and 
had guided through forty years of tribu- 
lation in the wilderness ; and as vainly 
endeavouring to obtain, by the most ear- 
nest supplications, a remission of the 
sentence from his offended God? Sup- 
pose, then, and it is the only hypothesis, 
that of truth excepted, remaining, the Bi- 
ble'to be the work of forgery. Would any 
author of a fictitious story, after having 
dignified throughout five books, like the 
Pentateuch, his principal character with 
miraculous endowments and celestial in- 
tercourse unparalleled among men, have 
dismissed him by such a sentence of 
death ? 

2 Kings, ii. 1. 

u And it came to pass, when the Lord 
" would take up Elijah into heaven by a 
« whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha 
« from Gilgal." 

When the Lord would take up Elijah 
into heaven by a whirlwind ! It is in these 



123 

few and simple words that the sacred 
writer of the second book of Kings an- 
nounces one of the most astonishing 
deviations ever known from the estab- 
lished order and government of the 
world ; one of those modes of special in- 
terposition which Divine Providence had 
the most rarely employed from the cre- 
ation to that moment. One instance only 
had previously existed ; that of Enoch. 
And Enoch walked with God ; and he was 
not, for God took him.* With the ex- 
ception of concise statements of the age 
of Enoch, and of his having sons and 
daughters, this is the whole account 
respecting that patriarch, and his trans- 
lation into heaven without suffering the 
general penalty of death. Would any 
forger have comprised the whole account 
of such a man, and such an event, within 
that short sentence, u He walked with 
God ; and he was noUfor God took himV 
A forger would have had no inducement 
to feign such an event, if he turned it to 
no advantage. The observations extend 
to Elijah. A forger, proposing to be- 

* Genesis, v. 24* 
G 2 



124 

stow on his prophet the stupendous 
distinction of being exalted alive into 
heaven by the immediate hand of God, 
would not have announced the intended 
event in the samebrief and sudden manner 
in which he would have incidentally named 
a purpose of Elijah to take a journey to 
Jerusalem, or any other common occur- 
rence of little interest. An inspired 
historian, writing in the very country 
where the translation of Elijah had re- 
cently taken place, and where the minds 
of men were fully impressed with the 
knowledge and admiration of the fact, 
might naturally introduce the mention 
of it in few and as it were abrupt words. 
Not so a forger. He would have studied to 
prepare the reader, and to aggrandize the 
event, by concerted circumstances. He 
would have detailed an antecedent com- 
munication from above to the Prophet, of 
the signal honour destined for him ; would 
have enlarged on the humble gratitude of 
Elijah ; and would have pictured the actual 
translation as taking place, not in the 
wilderness before one solitary spectator, 
but in the sight and amid the acclam- 



125 

ations of surrounding multitudes. A 
forger would have acted thus with re- 
gard to Enoch. In the case of Elijah, 
he would have had greater scope and in- 
ducement to give details preparatory to 
the translation. For in the early part of 
the book of Genesis, the accounts of in- 
dividuals in remote ages are very con- 
cise. But in the books of Kings, the 
historian allowed himself, at his discre- 
tion, a larger scope. And five entire 
chapters, and a part of a sixth, are 
assigned to actions of Elijah.* 

There is, indeed, in one of the earlier 
of those chapters, an expression which, 
on close examination, will be found to 
indicate that Elijah had already received 
an intimation of the mode in which it 
was the divine intention to remove him 
from the earth. Having fled into the 
land of Judah after the extermination of 
the prophets of Baal from the menaced 
vengeance of Jezebel, he went a day's 
journey into the wilderness, and came and 
sat down under a juniper tree. And he 

* 1 Kings, xvii. xviii. xix. and part of xxi\ 
2 Kings, i. ii. 

G 3 



126 

requested for himself that he might die: 
and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, 
take away my life, for I am not better than 
my fathers. * That a holy man, worn by 
labours, and beset by dangers, should 
pray that, if it were consistent with the 
good pleasure of God, he might die, is 
neither unintelligible nor unnatural. But 
where, under ordinary circumstances, is 
the argumentative force of the plea, by 
which the request is upheld : For I am 
not better than my fathers? That a pro- 
phet was not better than his fathers, 
could not be a reason why the favour 
of an immediate deliverance from the 
^troubles of life should be granted to him. 
But if we regard Elijah as already in- 
formed that at a future indefinite time 
he should be translated to heaven, with- 
out tasting of death, and consider the 
import of the prayer as referring to that 
communication ; the plea becomes rele- 
vant and forcible. It is as though he 
had said ; " O Lord, permit me, instead 
" of being reserved to some distant time 
" for the signal honour which thy good- 

* 1 Kings, xix. 4. 



127 

" ness has designed for me, now to lay 
" down my life by the common death of 
" all men. It was thus that my fathers 
"died ; and I am not more worthy of dis- 
€< tinction in death than they were." All 
becomes clear and consistent. But it is 
not to a broken sentence, requiring at- 
tention and research to discover and apply 
its meaning, that a forger would have 
resorted in order to convey to his readers 
his purpose of carrying Elijah by a whirl- 
wind into heaven. A forger does not 
trust to the risk of indirect intimations 
likely to be overlooked or misunder- 
stood. That which he thinks for his 
advantage to be known, he tells plainly. 
The very obscurity of the reference in 
the passage before us testifies the in- 
tegrity of the writer. 

Daniel, iii. 23. 
<c And these three men, Shadrach, Me- 
66 shac, and Abednego, fell down bound 
" into the midst of the burning fiery 
" furnace." 

In the second chapter of Daniel, Ne- 
buchadnezzar, in the true spirit of east- 
ern despotism, commands his band of 
g 4 



128 

magicians and astrologers, under the 
penalty of death to every one of them if 
they should fail to accomplish his desire, 
and with the promise of gifts and re- 
wards and great honour if they should 
succeed, to recite to him a supernatural 
dream which had filled him with agi- 
tation and alarm in the preceding night, 
but of the particulars of which he did 
not retain any recollection ; and also to 
reveal to him the interpretation. After 
fruitless remonstrances on the part of 
these men, and declarations that the de- 
mand was wholly unexampled, and im- 
possible to be satisfied by any being ex- 
cept the gods, whose dwelling is not with 
jftesh, all are ordered to execution. Then 
the true God, in answer to the supplica- 
tion of Daniel and his three compa- 
nions, Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego, 
enables Daniel to state to Nebuchad- 
nezzar the prophetic dream, which the 
king at once recognizes, and to inter- 
pret the several portions of it. Ne- 
buchadnezzar prostrated himself before 
Daniel, in reverence to such illustrious 
inspiration ; glorified the God by whom it 



129 

was granted as a God of gods, and a Lord 
of kings, and a revealer of secrets : and 
made Daniel a great man, and gave him 
many great gifts, and made him ruler over 
the whole province of Babylon, and chief 
of the governors over all the wise men of 
Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the 
king, and he set Shadrach, Meshac, and 
Abednego, over the affairs of the province 
of Babylon. But Daniel sat in the gate 
of the king, as one of his principal mi- 
nisters. 

In the succeeding chapter, the spirit 
of despotism displays itself under ano- 
ther form* Nebuchadnezzar erects an 
enormous image of gold in the plain 
of Dura, in the province of Babylon ; 
summons all the chief men, civil and 
military, from the different provinces of 
his empire, to attend at the dedication of 
this image to his deity; commands every 
one of them, with all the assembled 
people, nations, and languages, to fall 
down at an appointed signal before the 
image, and to worship it; and ordains, 
that any recusant should be instantly 
cast into a furnace of iire already blazing 
g 5 



ISO 

on the spot for the reception of the 
rebel. Shadrach, Meshac, and Abed- 
nego, fall not down. They are imme- 
diately accused by Chaldeans hating 
and watching these favoured foreigners. 
There are certain Jews, whom thou hast 
set over the affairs of the province of Ba- 
bylon ; SJiadraeh, Meshach, and Abed- 
nego. These men, O king, have not 
regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, 
nor xvorship the golden image which thou 
hast set up. The three servants of Je- 
hovah resolutely refuse obedience to the 
idolatrous mandate ; are thrown, by or- 
der of the furious monarch, impatient 
for their destruction, into the furnace ; 
and are miraculously delivered from the 
flames without having sustained the 
slightest injury. 

Here questions of the highest import- 
ance to the character of the prophet 
force themselves upon the attention of 
the reader of the chapter. Where was 
Daniel ? What was his conduct ? Did 
his faith fail in the hour of trial ? Did he 
bow down and worship the golden image? 
If, like Shadrach, and Meshac, and Abed- 



131 

nego, he disregarded the wrath of Ne- 
buchadnezzar, and was faithful to the 
Most High ; why was not he cast with 
them into the furnace of fire? On all 
these points the book of Daniel is com- 
pletely silent. 

Whatever suggestions as to these points 
may remain to be offered, one thing is 
clear : that no forger, writing the book 
of Daniel, would ever have left such 
questions open to be asked, or without 
having provided an explanatory reply. ; 

Let it be observed that Daniel is his 
own biographer. Various passages of 
the book represent it as written by him- 
self. * If Daniel, then, was capable of 
falsehood, what could be more obvious, 
what could be more natural, than that he 
should have united his own name with 
those of Shadrach, Meshac, and Abed- 
nego, as a participator in their faith, in 
their peril, and in their glorious deliver- 
ance ? Would not any forger have done 
this ? Would not a forger have described 
Daniel as taking the lead in braving the 

* Dan. vii. 2. viii. 1. ix. 2. x. 2. xii« 5* 
G 6 



132 

rage of the king, and the violence of the 
fire ? The narrative of Daniel demon- 
strates that every part of the proceedings 
at the dedication of the image was of 
the most public nature. On Daniel, as 
one of the principal ministers of the em- 
pire, unnumbered eyes, were he present 
on such an occasion, would be fixed. 
Had he fallen down and worshipped the 
image, concealment of the sin would 
have been impracticable. Had he re- 
fused compliance, detection and the fur- 
nace inevitably awaited him. Accusers 
of the Jews were present, and vigilant. 
The king was jealous and uncontrol- 
able; and implacable even towards those 
whom he had recently honoured and pro- 
moted. 

That Daniel was not guilty of unfaith- 
fulness to his God is manifest, not only 
from the whole tenor of his future his- 
tory, and from the repeated and signal 
testimonies with which he was favoured, 
that he was a man greatly beloved * of his 
Maker; but also from the attestation 
borne to him by the voice of God him- 

* Dan. ix. 23. x. 11. 19. 



133 

self in the prophecy of Ezekiel, and by 
the approving language of our Saviour.* 
The fact, then, is evident. Daniel was 
not present at the dedication of the 
image. Whether sickness disabled him 
from having his faith put to the proof, or 
he had been previously dispatched to a 
distance on the king's business, or what- 
ever else might be the impediment, Da- 
niel was not present. Why does not he 
record his absence ? Because he felt that 
the fact, and the cause of it, were pub- 
licly known. He knew that no imput- 
ation rested on his character. Falsehood 
and forgery would not, and could not, 
have been silent. Truth might be silent 
with perfect safety. 

Matth. i. 1—17. Luke, iii. 23—38. 

In the chapters here specified from two 
of the Evangelists, are delivered two ge- 
, nealogies of our Lord. In reconciling 
each of them with the other, there are 
difficulties which have exercised the at- 
tention of critics and commentators. It 

* Ezek. xxxviii. 3. xiv. 14. 18. 20. Matth. 
xxiv. 15. Mark xiii. 14. 



134 

is not my object to enter into any ex- 
amination of the points of difference ; and 
the less, because I regard them as having 
been satisfactorily explained, I have 
mentioned them for the sake of re- 
marking, that, if the New Testament 
had been a forgery, they would not have 
subsisted. In that case, the pedigrees, 
had more than one been given with refe- 
rence to the same individual, would have 
been the same, or obviously accordant. 
There could be no possible purpose an- 
swered by attaching to them the sem- 
blance of disagreement. Their connexion 
with the principal character would cause 
them to be accurately noticed, and any ap- 
parent incongruity to be discovered. It 
is admitted, that St. Luke composed his 
Gospel subsequently to the publication of 
that of St. Matthew. And to suppose 
that St. Luke had not perused the Gospel 
of St. Matthew, would be a conjecture 
against all probability. If St. Luke had 
been a deceiver, constructing a fictitious 
history of Jesus Christ intended to be 
acknowledged as an inspired narrative 
conjointly with that of St. Matthew, he 



135 

would either have forborne to deliver any 
genealogy of our Lord ; or would have 
transcribed St. Matthew's genealogy ; or 
would have explained any seeming in- 
compatibility between it and a pedigree 
stated by himself. The argument, re- 
versing the names, would be the same in 
substance, were it assumed that St. Mat- 
thew were the later writer of the two. 
Truth often leaves its statements to ex- 
plain themselves. In so palpable a mat- 
ter deceit could not but have been on its 
guard. 

Matth. xxvii. 44. 

" The thieves also which were crucified 
" with him cast the same in his teeth." 

Mark, xv. 32. 

" And they that were crucified with 
" him reviled him." 

Luke, xxiii. 39 — 42. 

" And one of the malefactors which 
" were hanged railed on him, saying, 
" If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 
" But the other, answering, rebuked him, 
" saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing 
" thou art in the same condemnation ? 



136 

" And we, indeed, justly ; for we receive 
" the due reward of our deeds : but this 
" man hath done nothing amiss. And 
" he said unto Jesus ; Lord, remember 
" me when thou comest into thy king- 
" dom." 

These passages are cited for the pur- 
pose of applying to them observations 
analogous to those which were offered in 
the preceding article respecting the ge- 
nealogies. Had St. Luke been a forger, 
fabricating a Gospel to be circulated 
through the Christian world in conjunc- 
tion with those of St. Matthew and St. 
Mark, as a work written like theirs, un- 
der the guidance of the Holy Spirit ; the 
existing variation between his account 
and theirs of the language of the two 
malefactors would not have been admit- 
ted. To say that the differences are re- 
concilable, is no answer to this position. 
By arguments deduced from the usage 
of the Greek language, which in some 
cases allows the substitution of indefinite 
expressions instead of definite, and from 
other sources, the differences are fairly 
reconcilable. But is it likely that a for- 
ger, laying claim to the authority of in- 



137 

spiration, would needlessly have hazarded 
so strong a semblance of incongruity ? 

John, i. 30 — 34. 

" This is He of whom I said, after me 
" cometh a man which is preferred be- 
" fore me ; for he was before me. And 
" I knew him not ; but that he should 
" be made manifest to Israel, therefore 
" am I come baptizing with water. And 
" John bare record, saying, I saw the 
" Spirit descending from heaven, like a 
" dove ; and it abode upon him. And 
" I knew him not : but he that sent me 
" to baptize with water, the same said 
" unto me, upon whom thou shalt see 
" the Spirit descending and remaining 
" on him, the same is he which baptizeth 
" with the Holy Ghost. And I saw ; and 
" bare record that this is the Son of 
" God." 

Matth. iii. 13, 14. 

" Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to 
" Jordan unto John to be baptized of 
" Jiim. But John forbade him, saying, 
" I have need to be baptized of thee j 
" and comest thou to me ?" 



138 

In the former of these passages, John 
the Baptist unequivocally and repeatedly 
declares his entire personal ignorance of 
Christ until the time of his baptism ; and 
apparently represents his knowledge of 
our Lord to have originated from the ful- 
filment of the previously appointed sign, 
the visible descent of the Holy Ghost, 
which was not accomplished until Christ 
came forth from the water after his bap- 
tism. In the latter passage, John dis- 
tinctly shows, by the record of St. Mat- 
thew, that he knew Jesus, before his bap- 
tism, to be the promised Redeemer. The 
discrepancy has been easily explained, by 
the supposition that the Baptist, when 
our Lord was approaching him, received 
an intimation from the Holy Spirit that 
this was the person in whom he should 
speedily see the appointed sign fulfilled. 
This circumstance an Evangelist writing 
in the fearlessness of conscious integrity 
may naturally have omitted to state. But 
had the Apostle John been a forger, there 
would have been no seeming discordance 
between his narrative and that of St. 
Matthew. The object of a forger is to 



139 

attach to his story every possible mea- 
sure of plausibility. To introduce into 
his recital the appearance of disagree- 
ment with a published and widely circu- 
lated work, acknowledged to be written 
under the superintendence of inspiration, 
would obviously be a certain method of 
destroying his own credit, and that of his 
own book. * And what temptation would 
there have been to fabricate a discre- 
pancy ? What object could be answered 
by it ? With respect to the several dis- 
crepancies which have been selected from 
the sacred volume, and to others which 
may have been discovered in it and ex- 
plained, it may be observed, that one of 
the purposes of the Holy Spirit in per- 
mitting them may have been, to exercise 
the faith, and to excite the attention and 
the industry, of enquirers into the Scrip- 
tures. But no such purpose could be 
attributed to a forger, or be compatible 
with his designs. 

There is yet a second point of view in 
which the passage quoted from St. John's 
Gospel must be contemplated; and a 



140 

citation from another Evangelist, with 
which it must be brought into connexion. 
John the Baptist dwells, as we have 
seen, with earnestness, on his not having 
known our Lord until the time of his 
baptism. That the Baptist should have 
been personally unacquainted with Jesus 
beforehand, was a fact of evident import- 
ance, on account of its tendency to nega- 
tive any suspicion which might arise of 
collusion and confederacy between them. 
Yet, in the natural course of events, no 
fact could be less probable. The mother 
of John was a near relative and an inti- 
mate friend of the mother of Jesus. The 
angel, when he announced to Mary that 
she was to become the mother of the 
Messiah, declared to her, that her cousin 
Elizabeth was shortly to have a son. It 
was to the house of Elizabeth and Za- 
charias that Mary immediately repaired, 
after these communications from the di- 
vine messenger : and there she abode 
three months. How reasonable, then, 
would have been the conclusion, that the 
two children of Mary and Elizabeth, 
children, too, whose births had been thus 



141 

miraculously ordained and announced ; 
children, between whom it was shown, by 
the prophetic testimony of Zacharias, that 
a most close co-operation was to take place ; 
would be trained from infancy to manhood 
in habitual intercourse and association. 
But the Baptist had never known Jesus 
until he came to be baptised. Such is the 
record of St. John. What explanation 
does the Evangelist give of this extraor- 
dinary fact ? None whatever. He knew 
the fact to be true, incontestably true : 
and left it in its naked verity. A forger 
would not have devised so improbable a 
fact ; or he would have explained it, He 
would not have trusted his readers to 
collect the explanation from a passage 
respecting the Baptist in the writings of 
another Evangelist (Luke i. 80.) : " And 
the child grew, and waxed strong in 
spirit : and was in the deserts till the day 
of his showing unto Israel" 

John, xx. SO. 

" And many other signs truly did Jesus 
" in the presence of his disciples, which 
" are not written in this book." 



142 

If we take the four Evangelists as men 
of integrity, and suppose each of them 
separately to compose a life of our Sa- 
viour; it would be natural that each 
should omit a considerable portion of the 
almost numberless miracles performed by 
Christ. Each Evangelist might apply to 
his own narrative the terms in which St. 
John, in the verse immediately following 
that which is prefixed to the present ar- 
ticle, speaks of his Gospel : These (signs) 
are "written that ye might believe that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and 
that, believing, ye might have life through 
his name: and would not detail many 
more miracles than would be reasonably 
necessary for these purposes. It would 
be equally natural, that each of the four 
writers should occasionally vary from all 
the other three, in the selection of mira- 
cles to be recorded. Each of them, also, 
knowing that the leading facts of the 
history of their master were matters of 
public notoriety among Christians, and 
that the Gospel which the individual 
was penning would speedily be circulated 
every where, not as a solitary perform- 
13 



143 

ance, but in conjunction with the Gospels 
of other inspired Evangelists ; might pass 
over some points of primary consequence 
with merely incidental notice, or even in 
silence. Now, suppose that one of the 
four Evangelists had been a forger. Con- 
sistently both with his object in writing 
a fictitious narrative, and also with a 
cautious attention to the credibility of 
this narrative, he also might safely ven- 
ture professedly to omit many of the 
miracles of Jesus ; and might make a 
selection from them, differing more or less 
from that which might be preferred by 
any other three writers in their respective 
histories. But there the similarity of 
proceeding would terminate. The forger 
would at once perceive the necessity of 
assuring credit and interest to his book, 
compared, as it was to be, with the in- 
spired writings of the other Evangelists, 
by introducing all the great facts respect- 
ing the person, the offices, the actions, 
the sufferings, the resurrection, and the 
ascension of our Lord j and by a studied 
notice and detail of such miracles per- 
formed by Christ, as would be particu- 



144 

larly calculated to impress the mind of 
the reader by their sublimity, or to touch 
his feelings by their pathos. 

The subjoined statement will contain 
examples sufficient to show that the four 
Evangelists have pursued the course 
which corresponds with the supposition 
of their integrity, and with that supposi- 
tion only. 

Neither in St. Matthew, nor in St. 
Mark, nor in St. John, is there any re- 
lation of the mission of the angel Gabriel 
to the Virgin Mary ; w r hich is recorded 
with great particularity by St. Luke. 

St. Matthew is the only Evangelist who 
relates the appearance of the angel of the 
Lord in a vision to Joseph, when deliber- 
ating as to putting away his betrothed 
wife, Mary, in a private manner. 

St. Matthew alone describes the jour- 
ney and the adoration of the wise men 
from the East ; the slaughter of the in- 
fants at Bethlehem ; the previous remo- 
val of Jesus into Egypt, by the direction 
of the angel ; the subsequent return of 
Christ from Egypt by a similar direction ; 



145 

and the settlement of Joseph and Mary 
with him, at Nazareth. 

Only St. Matthew and St. Luke relate 
the birth of Christ, at Bethlehem. And 
St. Matthew states no particulars. 

St. Luke alone describes the appear- 
ance of the heavenly host to the shep- 
herds ; the recognition of the infant Je- 
sus, as the Christ, by Simeon, and by 
Anna ; and the return of our Saviour, 
when he was twelve years old, from his 
parents to Jerusalem, and the astonish- 
ment which his understanding and an- 
swers excited among the Jewish Rabbis 
in the Temple. 

Only St. Luke relates the affecting mi- 
racle of the raising of the widow's son, 
at Nain. 

Only St. Mark and St. Luke mention 
the raising of the daughter of Jairus from 
the dead. 

St. John alone commemorates the mi- 
racle, which, among the signs and won- 
ders wrought by our Lord, produced the 
most considerable impression, — the rais- 
ing of Lazarus. 

H 



146 

The institution of the Sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper, and the agony of Christ 
in the Garden of Gethsemane, are not 
mentioned by St John. 

The very remarkable circumstance of 
the washing of the feet of the disciples, 
by our Saviour, is recorded only by St. 
John. 

St. Matthew does not record the as- 
cension of our Lord into heaven. Nei- 
ther does St. John ; though he mentions 
the previous allusion to the event, in the 
words of Christ to Mary Magdalene, 
after his resurrection. St. Luke briefly 
notices the ascension in his Gospel j but 
gives a full account of it in the first chap- 
ter of the Book of Acts. 

St John alone records the commence- 
ment of the miracles of Jesus, by the 
conversion of water into wine, at the 
marriage in Cana. 

St. John does not relate the stupen- 
dous incident of the transfiguration. 

St. John is the only evangelist who re- 
cords the voice of God the Father, heard 
from heaven, (John, xii. 28 — 30.) some 
few days before the crucifixion of Christ. 



147 

Acts, ix. M — $& 
The Apostle Peter, arriving at Lyd- 
da, found there a man named iEneas, 
who had kept his bed eight years, and 
was sick of the palsy. Thence, after 
healing JEneas, Peter proceeded to Jop- 
pa, being summoned thither in conse- 
quence of the sickness of a very pious 
woman, named Tabitha. She died be- 
fore he came ; but, by his prayers, was re- 
stored to life. The consequence of the 
first of these miracles was the conversion 
of all the inhabitants of the town, and of 
a place adjacent : All that dwelt at Lydda 
and Saron saw him, (iEneas,) and turned 
to the Lord. The consequence of the se- 
cond and the more extraordinary miracle 
was the conversion of a part only of the 
people of Joppa: "It was known through- 
" out all Joppa, and many believed in the 
m Lord." One of the causes of the differ- 
ence may have been, that the long-con- 
tinned infirmity of iEneas was well known 
by every one, and that no person who 
saw him afterwards could doubt of his 
cure j but that, notwithstanding the ge- 
neral report throughout Joppa of the re- 
h 2 



148 

storation of Tabitha to life, various per- 
sons in the city might be incredulous as 
to the fact of her having been dead. A 
forger, I think, would have ascribed the 
greater effect to the greater miracle ; or 
would have assigned a reason for a con- 
trary statement. 

Acts, ix. 7* 
" And the men which journeyed with 
4€ him stood speechless, hearing a voice, 
<( but seeing no man." 

Acts, xxii. 9. 

" And they that were with me saw in- 
V deed the light, and were afraid ; but 
" they heard not the voice of him that 
" spake to me." 

In the Book of Acts, St. Luke three 
times introduces St. Paul as delivering a 
detailed account of his conversion. In 
the prefixed extracts from two of those 
accounts, there is a seeming contradic- 
tion. The third account, Acts, xxvi., is 
silent on the circumstance to which the 
contrariety attaches. The contrariety is 
reconciled by understanding the compa- 
nions of St. Paul to have heard the ge- 



149 

neral sound of the voice of our Lord, but 
not to have comprehended the particular 
words. But it .appears very improbable 
that, if the writer of the Book of Acts had 
been a forger, he would have thus exposed 
his two narrations to a charge of contra- 
diction. No end could be answered by 
the circumstance ; and suspicion might be 
excited. 

1 Cor. xi. 4, 5. 13. 16. 
" Every man, praying or prophesying, 
c having his head covered, dishonoureth 
< his head. But every woman that pray- 
* eth or prophesieth, with her head un- 
' covered, dishonoureth her head : for 
' that is even all one as if she were 
« shaven. Judge in yourselves : is it 
' comely that a woman pray unto God 
c uncovered ? We have no such custom, 
1 neither the churches of God." 
1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35. 
"Let your women keep silence in the 
" churches : for it is not permitted unto 
" them to speak ; but they are command- 
" ed to be under obedience, as also saith 
11 the law. And if they will learn any 
" thing, let them ask their husbands at 
h 3 



150 

" home : for it is a shame for women to 
" speak in the church." 

1 Tim. ii. 8. 11, J 2. 

" I will therefore that men pray every 
" where. Let the woman learn in silence 
" with all subjection. But I suffer not a 
" woman to teach, nor to usurp authority 
" over the man, but to be in silence." 

It is plain that all these passages, from 
the writings of St. Paul, relate, not to the 
devotions of the closet, but to public 
prayer, and public speaking, in religious 
assemblies. It is also plain, that the first 
passage is apparently in contradiction to 
the other two, as it supposes, and admits, 
that, in some cases, a woman was at li- 
berty to pray and to speak in public; 
proceedings, which, in the latter passages, 
are reprobated, and, without exception, 
forbidden. It is also evident, that no ex- 
planation whatever of the contrariety is 
given by the apostle. 

The contrariety is generally, and, as it 
should seem, reasonably, explained, by 
considering the permission implied in the 
first of these extracts as relating and 



151 

restricted to those devotional meetings, 
which were occasionally held by women 
separately from the men.* The mode, 
however, of bringing the passages into 
harmony is not now the question. It is 
their want of visible harmony to which 
the attention of the reader is desired. If 
the Epistle to Timothy were assumed to 
be a fabricated composition, intended to 
pass for a genuine and authentic letter 
from St. Paul, it w 7 ould have been highly 
improbable that the forger should insert 
into it, and also leave unexplained, a pas- 
sage so distinctly at variance with that 
which has been cited from the eleventh 

* Some expositors discern, in the tenth verse, a 
specific allusion to these separate meetings : and are 
of opinion that the word AyyeXoi ought to be there 
translated, not " angels,'' but, in its general import, 
messengers, delegates, namely, sent by the men to 
superintend the meeting and to preserve order ; and 
that, on account of the presence of these messen- 
gers, as representatives of the authority of the men, 
the women were directed to have their heads veiled 
or covered, in token of subjection to that authority. 
The exposition may be just. But no forger would 
have trusted the reconcilement of the contrariety in 
question to the chance that his readers might dis- 
cern or devise so remote an explication. 
H 4 



152 

chapter of the first Epistle to the Corin- 
thians. The improbability would be the 
greater, because neither the prohibition 
in the one passage, nor the permission in 
the other, comes as a sudden and transient 
observation j but each stands in its own 
connection with a regular and serious 
train of argument. If the Epistle to the 
Corinthians be supposed the forgery, or, 
if both that Epistle and the Epistle to 
Timothy be assumed to be fictitious ; the 
improbability remains the same. But how 
extravagant does any supposition of fic- 
tion or forgery appear, when we compare 
the two passages quoted from the ele- 
venth and the fourteenth chapters of the 
first Epistle to the Corinthians ! Here, in 
two, and those not widely separated, pas- 
sages in the same letter, a letter bearing- 
marks throughout of an active and in- 
telligent mind and of deep and earnest 
consideration, we have directions, appar- 
ently contradictory, delivered without an 
attempt at reconcilement or explanation ; 
directions severally grounded on a con- 
tinued chain of reasoning ; and pertain- 
ing, not to a topic of trifling, or doubt- 



153 

ful, or rare occurrence, but to a subject* 
in its nature both important and perma- 
nent, and practically coming forward, 
constantly and universally. St. Paul, in 
the consciousness that his injunctions, 
though seemingly jarring, would be rightly 
understood and properly applied, might 
safely write as he has done. But would 
any forger have written thus ? Could 
any forger have had a conceivable motive 
for such a proceeding ? 



154 



ESSAY III. 

ON THE PRESENT STATE OF FEELING BE- 
TWEEN CALVINISTS AND ANTICALVI- 
NISTS ; AND ON THE COMBINATION OF 
CALVINISTIC AND ANTICALVINISTIC OPI- 
NIONS. 



Those persons who may happen to have 
read and to recollect certain passages in 
former successive writings of my own, to 
which reference is given below *, will be 
aware, that my sentiments on Calvinistic 
topics have been very long before the 
public j and that they have been uni- 
formly and unequivocally contrary to 

* Sermons, vol. i. 63—67. 450. London, 1802. 
Vol. ii. 361—365. These references are purposely 
to the first editions. Familiar Survey of the Christian 
Religion, p. 297. 310. ; Exposition of the Epistle to 
the Colossians, p. 18, 19. ; The Testimony of Na- 
tural Theology to Christianity, second edition, 
p. 247. 268. 



155 

every peculiarity of Calvinism. They 
are still the same : and have been but 
confirmed by reflection. But while I am 
solicitous that my opinions on these points 
should not be open to misconception, 
(against misrepresentation it is not pos- 
sible to guard) ; I am not about to enter 
upon an argumentative enquiry into the 
Calvinistic question. My objects are of 
a different nature. 

As a matter of fact it is incontrovert- 
ible, that from the time of the Reform- 
ation there have existed, in the Estab- 
lished Church of England, two bodies of 
clergymen, each with its followers among 
the laity of the kingdom, distinguished 
by Calvinistic and Anticalvinistic tenets. 
The relative proportion of the two divi- 
sions has varied at different times. With- 
in the last century and a half, the Calvi- 
nistic body has been very much dimi- 
nished. Still, however, it is universally 
admitted, that there is at present among 
the clergy of our church a considerable 
number who hold sentiments more or less 
strongly Calvinistic. And it is only pre- 
judice or ignorance which can deny, that 
h 6 



156 

in that number are many individuals, 
who in solid piety, in practical holiness, 
and in parochial exertions and usefulness, 
need not to shrink from any comparison 
with their Anticalvinistic brethren. 

In our own days, and it is with these 
days that we are mainly concerned, the 
two parties appear to have had reason to 
complain each of the other. Collision 
has taken place ; and scintillations of 
anger have sprung forth. While, on each 
side of the question, some writers have 
done honour to themselves and justice to 
their cause, by sober argument, and by 
a liberal and candid spirit ; other dispu- 
tants have exhibited unfair represent- 
ations of the adverse body, and have in- 
veighed against it with various degrees 
of violence and bitterness, and occasion- 
ally of misapprehension and ignorance 
as to the actual tenets of the persons 
whom they condemned. 

It is not censoriousness to mention 
real or imputed faults, with a view to 
their correction, if they should exist. 
There are faults which each of these re- 
ligious bodies perceives, or -imagines it- 



157 

self to perceive, in many members of the 
adverse body ; and is the more liable to 
impute to the generality of that body, 
because they are deemed to originate in 
the peculiar doctrines by which that body 
is distinguished. Hence, both sides are, 
in the outset, inclined to harbour the 
greater prepossessions each against the 
other. 

On the one hand, in contemplating a 
Calvinist, Anticalvinists frequently are 
disposed to regard themselves as viewing 
a man who, deeming himself singled out 
and predestined to salvation, feels, through 
the influence of erroneous views of the 
divine sovereignty, complacence in ascrib- 
ing to a God of love a partial, harsh, and 
arbitrary system of moral government ; 
a man puffed up with spiritual pride on 
account of his imagined knowledge and 
privileges ; a man whose opinions verge 
towards solifidianism j and whose preach- 
ing, if exempt from Antinomian admix- 
tures, keeps practice in the background, 
and is habitually and very mischievously 
deficient as to die exhibition of individual 
duties and of individual sins. 



158 

Calvinists, on the other hand, in sur- 
veying an Anticalvinist, are often apt to 
represent to themselves a man who, in the 
presumption of human reason, questions 
the right of the Supreme Being to do 
what he wills with his own : a man seek- 
ing justification by the law of works, and 
tinctured with Pelagian heterodoxy : the 
preacher, well intentioned, it may be as- 
sumed, but grossly in the dark, of a mu- 
tilated gospel, despoiled of some of its 
most essential doctrines and most ani- 
mating privileges : as rejecting, in the 
work of his ministry, some of the most 
important of the means of conversion, of 
edification, and of consolation, which 
Christian teachers are authorised and 
commanded by the Scriptures to employ ; 
and consequently, as debarring himself, 
in a corresponding measure, from the 
prospect of the blessing of God upon his 
labours. 

The reader who is conversant with the 
two bodies of men will judge what is the 
ordinary proportion of truth and of error 
in the pictures reciprocally drawn by each 
body of the other. Mutually unlike as 



159 

the representations are in numberless 
cases to their objects j it is to be appre- 
hended that, as to various individuals in 
each body, there is a portion of simili- 
tude as well as of dissimilitude in the 
composition and in the colouring. 

One of the accusations which we have 
heard mutually and loudly sounded by 
individuals from both divisions of the 
clergy is, that the opposite body is not a 
true and legitimate part of the Church of 
England. Undoubtedly, it may be too 
probable that each body may contain 
persons, even among the clergy, whose 
tenets are such, that, were they brought 
to a fair scrutiny by the articles and the 
liturgy, the holders of them would be 
found destitute of a title to be recognized 
as belonging to the establishment. But 
that the charge, considered as general, is 
reciprocally unfounded and injurious, is 
a position not difficult to prove by recur- 
rence to historical authority. The Cal- 
vinist, without being required to depart 
from any advantage which he may regard 
himself as possessing in the tenor of the 
seventeenth article ; and the Antical- 



160 

vinist, without implying a dereliction of 
any of the arguments on which he con- 
tends, that the predestination there re- 
cognized is the everlasting and general 
purpose of God to save mankind by 
Christ and is conditional as to each in- 
dividual, may safely admit, that an ad- 
ditional design was within the contem- 
plation of the framers of the article. 
From the testimony of contemporary do- 
cuments it appears, that our Reformers, 
divided among themselves, in common 
with the rest of Christian Europe in that 
age, on the Predestinarian points, and 
deeply sensible of the injury caused to 
the interests of Protestantism by the di- 
visions and subdivisions of its professors, 
and of the plausibility thus afforded to 
the arguments of the Roman Catholics in 
support of the necessity of an infallible 
church, wisely determined to erect the 
Church of England on the amplest basis 
compatible with the security of sound- 
ness of doctrine in essentials. Their 
aim, therefore, with respect to Calvinists 
and Anticalvinists, was to avoid, in the 
liturgy, such language as might be rea- 



161 

sonably offensive to the peculiarities of 
either body: and, in the articles, so to 
speak concerning predestination in broad 
and indefinite expressions, and so to 
qualify those expressions by a general re- 
ference to Scripture, that the mass of 
each description might perceive, in the 
terms thus selected and modified, and 
also accompanied by the rest of the Book 
of Common Prayer as by a collateral ex- 
position, a fair latitude of interpretation 
sufficiently harmonizing with the views 
of the body, and enabling the Calvinist 
stopping short of Antinomian admix- 
tures, and the Anticalvinist untainted 
by Pelagianism, to unite as true members 
and ministers of the Established Church. 
All such persons, notwithstanding their 
remaining discrepancies of opinion as to 
divine decrees, the parliament of the 
thirteenth year of Elizabeth, imposing 
subscription to the Articles and Liturgy 
on the Clergy, stamped as true and legi- 
timate churchmen as to doctrine. Each 
of the subsequent parliaments, from 
that day to the present, severally sue 
ceeding in its turn to the legislative rights 



162 

and power of its defunct predecessor, be- 
came, during its own continuance, the 
imposer of subscription, and the decider 
of true churchmanship; and by leaving the 
act of the thirteenth of Elizabeth unrepeal- 
ed and unaltered, continued in force the 
criterion of churchmanship as by that 
act originally appointed. The existing 
parliament of Great Britain, the existing 
imposer of subscription and decider of 
true churchmanship, by not exerting its 
unquestionable right and power of re- 
pealing or altering, should it think fit, 
the act of the thirteenth of Elizabeth, 
continues in force the criterion which 
that act introduced. 

We, perhaps, at this distance from the 
epoch of the Reformation, may be tempt- 
ed to think that the comprehensiveness 
of the establishment might have been no 
less clearly denoted, and the internal 
peace of the church prospectively might 
have been better secured, by articles en- 
tirely silent on Calvinistic points, than by 
any article liable to be deemed indeter- 
minate and to be alleged, as we have 
ourselves seen the seventeenth article, by 



163 

each party, as speaking its own senti- 
ments and virtually or directly condemn- 
ing the tenets of the other party. But 
however that question, if now to be agi- 
tated, might be decided ; it is one which 
was not suited to the Protestants of Eng- 
land in the latter half of the sixteenth 
century. The minds of men were then 
too strongly turned to the Predestinarian 
controversy, and most persons attached 
too much importance to it, for silence on 
the subject to have been easily tolerated. 
The mode adopted was probably the best; 
was perhaps the only mode which would 
then seem to promise the consolidation of 
a national church, But that the present 
articles were not deemed by the Calvi- 
nistic body at the time to proscribe Anti- 
calvinism, is demonstrated by the nature 
of the Lambeth Articles, proposed by 
Archbishop Whitgift and his associates. 
That they were not regarded as exclud- 
ing Calvinists, is equally plain ; as Whit- 
gift, and Hooker, and many other of the 
most eminent dignitaries and ornaments 
of the church in succession, were de- 
cidedly and avowedly Calvinists. And 



164 

it must be admitted as an evident truth, 
that if a number of Anticalvinistic cler- 
gymen had been assembled to compose 
articles for a National Church of Eng- 
land, from which Calvinists were to be 
excluded ; their own sentiments would 
have led them to adopt language more 
obviously decisive in their favour than 
that of the seventeenth article. 

The charge which has frequently been 
urged by Calvinists, that the Antical- 
vinistic doctrine derogates from the sove- 
reignty of God/ is totally without found- 
ation. The controversy between the 
two parties does not, in any degree what- 
ever, involve a question as to the right- 
ful, perfect, and uncontrollable sove- 
reignty of God. In the recognition of 
that sovereignty, of its illimitable extent, 
of its infinite perfection, the Calvinist 
and the Anticalvinist thoroughly ac- 
cord. The difference between them is, 
that of two modes in which the divine 
sovereignty might be hypothetically re- 
presented as exercised over mankind, the 
Calvinist believes that the Deity has 
adopted the one, the Anticalvinist that 



165 

God has been pleased to prefer the 
other. Sovereignty does not consist in 
the mode, but in the right, of exercise. 
Unlimited sovereignty would not im- 
peach its own rights, if, by a spontaneous 
act of its own sovereign will, it should 
ordain certain events to be within a cer- 
tain measure dependent on the proceed- 
ings of other moral agents. Add to 
unlimited sovereignty the attribute of 
unlimited foreknowledge ; and the sup- 
position that, by so ordaining the con- 
tingency of certain events, sovereignty 
impeached its own rights, becomes still 
more irrational. Assume the Supreme 
Sovereign to have ordained that every 
human being shall attain salvation; or 
that every one shall fall into perdition j 
or that any given proportion shall be 
saved, and the remainder shall be lost j 
or that the salvation and the perdition 
shall be in every case dependent and 
contingent on the moral agency and 
responsibility of the individual ; or that 
in no case shall it be dependent and con- 
tingent on that moral agency, but neces- 
sary and inevitable : the essence of 



166 

sovereignty would equally remain unim- 
peachable and undiminished. If the 
denial of predestination displaces God 
from the throne of the universe ; and 
such language has been sanctioned by 
no light authority on the Calvinistic side : 
I see not how it is possible to escape the 
blasphemous conclusion, a conclusion, 
however, which the mass of Calvinists 
would utterly and sincerely disclaim, 
that every sin committed by any man is 
directly ascribable to God. 

Equally unsubstantiated, with regard 
to the collective bodies, are other charges 
severally advanced by Calvinists and An- 
ticalvinists : that the Anticalvinistic sys- 
tem substitutes human merit, more or 
less, in the place of the atoning sacrifice 
of the Redeemer; and that the Calvin- 
istic plan despises and subverts moral 
obedience. The Calvinist, in reply to 
the charge against his principles, justly 
points to many of the most practical di- 
vines of our church, as having belonged 
to his class. If it be pressed upon hii», 
that his doctrine theoretically involves 
great and inexplicable inconsistency; 



167 

perhaps he discerns, and frankly admits, 
the inconsistency. But whether he dis- 
cerns and admits it, or not, he adds, that 
he reads in the Scriptures the universal 
necessity of good works, the indispensable 
obligation of proving his faith, and of 
exhorting and animating all men to 
prove theirs, by zealous and habitual ho- 
liness j and that he, in consequence, la- 
bours to act and to preach accordingly. 
I am not aware that in the Anticalvin- 
istic doctrine, fairly stated, there is any 
theoretical inconsistency to be acknow- 
ledged. But the Anticalvinist holds no 
less firmly than the Calvinist the grand 
and characteristical doctrines of the gos- 
pel ; the corruption of human nature ; 
the sinfulness and helplessness of every 
man ; salvation by grace alone j justifi- 
cation exclusively by faith in the atone- 
ment of the Son of God ; sanctification 
only through the regenerating influence 
of the Holy Spirit j derives his morality 
from faith, as the fruit from the rootj 
and thus builds his moral obedience, no 
less than his faith, on Jesus Christ, the 
corner-stone* 



168 

For Calvinists who maintain tenets 
tinctured with Antinomianism, or for 
Anticalvinists who maintain tenets tinc- 
tured with Pelagianism, far be it from 
me to offer any defence. Such persons 
ought to be publicly disowned by the 
bodies to which severally they profess to 
belong. 

Human laws cannot alter the in- 
herent nature of religious doctrine ; 
nor warrant any man to recognize 
as accurately scriptural that which he 
believes to be erroneous. But if the laws 
of any given country treat with avowed 
and equal respect the peculiar religious 
opinions by which two bodies of men are 
discriminated, the one from the other j 
the circumstance must be acknowledged 
as a very forcible admonition to both 
those bodies to treat each other, so far 
as their several religious opinions are 
concerned, with respect and moderation. 
Now we have in this island two national 
established churches; the national Church 
of England, covering the portion of 
Great Britain south of the Tweed, with 
the Isle of Man, and the islands on the 



169 

southern coast; and the national Church 
of Scotland, covering the parts north of 
that river, with the Hebrides, and the 
Isles of Orkney and Shetland. In the 
Act of Union between England and Scot- 
land, the most scrupulous solicitude, the 
most reasonable and amicably jealous 
watchfulness, were mutually employed 
to maintain the religious equality of the 
two churches. # The doctrine, the dis- 
cipline, the rights, the privileges, the 
revenues, of each church were equally 
ratified and secured by law. Each 
church was authoritatively recognized, 

* It would be an error to suppose that inferiority 
in any sense was implied as to the Church of Scot- 
land, because none of her ministers are entitled as 
such to seats in the House of Lords. The circum- 
stance arose from the opposite sentiments of the 
two churches respecting the propriety of annexing, 
in certain cases, political rank and privileges to 
ecclesiastical station. The Episcopal Church of 
England had ever been accustomed to place her 
bishops in the upper House of Parliament. Had 
the Presbyterian Church of Scotland approved 
such a measure as to her ministers, Scotland would 
have had a due proportion of spiritual as of temporal 
peers. 

I 



170 

and pronounced to be a true and genuine 
Protestant Church of Christ. The two 
churches, however, display on the Cal- 
vinistic points a marked diversity of sen- 
timent. The Church of England, by her 
articles, to use the representation least 
favourable to Anticalvinism, admits that 
doctrine into her communion. Her 
northern sister, by her Confession of 
Faith, excludes it from her creed. Every 
door, every window, every loophole, 
every crevice, appears to be barricaded 
against the intrusion of Anticalvinistic 
tenets. How unbecoming then must it 
be in a Calvinist bitterly to declaim 
against the Anticalvinistic system as 
heretical, when the Imperial Parliament 
of Great Britain solemnly declares the 
national Church of England, which com- 
prehends that system, to be a true Church 
of Christ ! Even more unbecoming, if it 
be possible, must be the conduct of the 
Anti calvinist, who should furiously in- 
veigh against Calvinism as heresy ; when 
the same Imperial Legislature of his 
country avers the national Church of 



171 

Scotland, founded on a basis exclu- 
sively Calvinistic, to be a true Church 
of Christ ! * 

* Since the reader may not have the same fa- 
cility of referring to the authorised documents of 
the Established Church of Scotland, as he has of 
consulting the thirty-nine articles in the Book of 
Common Prayer ; I subjoin, simply for the purpose 
of justifying the statements which I have given, 
certain extracts from the Confession of Faith of 
that church. The Confession, as it is stated on the 
title page, was " approved by the General Assem- 
" bly, 1649, and ratified and established by acts of 
" Parliament, 1649 and 1690, as the public and 
" avowed Confession of the Church of Scotland ;" 
and was recognised and confirmed as such by the 
act of Union of the two kingdoms. 

" Chap. iii. — Of God's Eterxal Decree. 

2. " Although God knows whatsoever may or 
" can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, 
11 yet hath He not decreed any thing because He 
" foresaw it as future, or as that which would come 
" to pass upon such conditions. 

3. " By the decree of God, for the manifestation 
" of His glory, some men and angels are predes- 
" tinated unto everlasting life, and others fore- 
M ordained to everlasting death. 

4. " These angels and men, thus predestinated 
u and fore-ordained, are particularly and unchange- 
" ably designed ; and their number is so certain 
" and definite, that it cannot be either increased 
" or diminished. 

I 2 



172 

Throughout the whole of the preced- 
ing part of this chapter, my purpose has 
been to lead the Calvinistic and the 

5. " Those of mankind that are predestinated 
" unto life, God, before the foundation of the world 
" was laid, according to his eternal and immutable 
" purpose, and the secret counsel and good plea- 
" sure of his will, hath chosen in Christ, unto ever- 
" lasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, 
u without any foresight of faith or good works, or 
" perseverance in either of them, or any other 
" thing in the creature, as conditions or causes 
" moving Him thereunto ; and all to the praise of 
" His glorious grace. 

6. " As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, 
" so hath He, by the eternal and most free purpose 
" of his will, fore-ordained all the means thereunto. 
" Wherefore they who are elected, being fallen in 
" Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually 
" called unto faith in Christ by his Spirit working 
" in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, 
" and kept by his power through faith unto salva- 
" tion. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, 
** effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, 
" and saved, but the elect only. 

7. st The rest of mankind God was pleased, ac- 
" cording to the unsearchable counsel of his own 
" will, whereby He extendeth or withholdeth mercy 
"as He pleaseth, for the glory of his Sovereign 
" power over his creatures, to pass by and to or- 
" dain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin, 
" to the praise of his glorious justice." 

8 



173 

Anticalvinistic members of the Church 
of England, severally, to understand the 
tenets and proceedings, each of the other, 
with distinctness ; to regard one another, 
amidst all their discrepances and recipro- 
cally discerned or imputed errors, with 
brotherly love ; and to oppose each other, 
when need may require, in the spirit of 
Christians. It may be well for all of us 
habitually to remember, how much more 
venial it may prove at the great day of 
account to have held, through preposses- 
sion, very considerable errors, than to 
have known and defended the truth in an 
unchristian spirit. 

These are not days in which the Church 
of England can safely be at angry vari- 
ance within itself. The common and 
great evils of internal division, of rending 
the body of Christ, are aggravated by the 
spirit of the times ; a spirit deeply pol- 
luted by scepticism and infidelity in num- 
bers, and in still larger numbers by luke- 
warmness as to religion altogether. The 
evils of occasional enthusiasm furnish to 
men of the world, and to cold religionists, 
a pretext for crying clown all sober and 
i 3 



174 

zealous activity in religion as fanaticism ; 
and lukewarmness induces them to seize 
and employ the plea. It is by holy 
activity and by union, under God, that 
the Church of England must stand. In- 
ternal errors of opinion in its members 
are to be rectified, not by contemptuous 
harshness, but by gentleness, by forbear- 
ance, by speaking the truth, and by speak- 
ing it in love.* The wrath of man voorketh 
not the righteousness qfGod.i It unchris- 
tianizes, according to its violence, the 
man who displays it : and hardens by 
Irritation the person against whom it is 
directed. The bane and the disgrace, of 
our country is the blind and vehement 
influence of party. That influence per- 
vading society is continually seen to 
stimulate the hot partizan, in politics or 
in religion, totally to forget the law of 
acting towards others as he would wish 
others to act towards himself, and to hate, 
to misrepresent, and to decry, eminently 
respectable individuals, who do not hap- 
pen to accord with some branches of 
his opinions. Unhappily this virulence 

* Eph. iv. 15. t James, i. 20. 



175 

is not confined to either side of the ques- 
tions now agitated as to matters civil or 
ecclesiastical. May it be banished from 
all subjects by both sides; and especially 
from the concerns of religion ! By this 
shall all men know that ye are My disci* 
pies, if ye have love one to another. * 

There is a mode, however, of approx- 
imating, as is supposed, towards an union 
of Calvinists and Anticalvinists, which 
in our days appears to have been gaining 
estimation among religious men, and 
seems to demand particular notice. 

Perplexed, it may be, by difficulties as 
to reconciling texts advanced by the 
two classes in support of their respective 
tenets ; grieved by witnessing the wrong 
tempers occasionally manifested on each 
side, and the evils resulting from them ; 
and anxious to discover means of termi- 
nating or of mitigating dissension among 
Christians in general, and particularly 
within the Church of England: many 
individuals of piety and intelligence have 
of late encouraged a certain amalgam- 
tion of Calvinistic and Anticalvinistic 

* John, xiii. 35. 
14 



1?6 

opinions. Sometimes in the shape of 
direct statements, sometimes in discus- 
sions of the same tenor with such state- 
ments, we hear or read language of the 
following import, Scripture, it is said, 
delivers its truths not in the form of sys- 
tems, but of propositions. It will not 
square itself within the limits of human 
circumscription, nor submit itself to hu- 
man inferences. It requires to be re- 
ceived humbly and implicitly on its own 
authority, and in its own comprehensive 
fulness. The rightly instructed Christian, 
if questioned whether he is a Calvinist or 
an Anticalvinist, will reply that he is nei- 
ther, and that he is both, Scriptural truth 
includes both the doctrines to a certain 
extent, and rejects the extremes of each. 
Let those who would modestly follow the 
Scriptures hold both the doctrines in a 
moderate degree ; and so maintain each, 
that it shall not militate against the other. 
And let preachers, taking the Scripture 
before them as they find it, preach cal- 
vinistically on texts which wear that 
aspect; and anticalvinistically on those 



177 

texts which appear of the opposite corn- 
plexion. 

The arguments advanced in support of 
these views and recommendations appear 
to be in substance two : that the Scrip- 
tures have not decided in favour of either 
doctrine against the other ; and that the 
whole subject is involved in mystery, 
which ever has been, and, on earth, ever 
will be, impenetrable to the finite and 
feeble understanding of man. 

In the first place, then, without enter- 
ing upon any examination into the truth 
either of the Calvinistic or of the Antical- 
vinistic doctrine, let us simply observe 
what the two doctrines severally are. 

Omitting all discussion of Supralapsa- 
rian and Sublapsarian distinctions, which 
relate rather to the date of the promul- 
gation or of the commencing operation 
of the divine decree, or to other collate- 
ral points, than to its actual decision on 
the eternal state of every individual, the 
Calvinistic doctrine is essentially this : 
that God has been pleased to elect from 
among the human race, by his sovereign 
pleasure, certain individuals, and to pre- 
i 5 



178 

destinate them to salvation through his 
mercy in Christ ; and to reprobate, or to 
pass by, all the rest of mankind, and to 
assign, or to leave, them to perdition, the 
appointed consequence of sin. * 

The Anticalvinistic doctrine essenti- 
ally is, that for the sake of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and by the gift of an ade- 
quate measure of grace through the sanc- 
tifying influence of the Holy Spirit, God 
has mercifully been pleased to bestow upon 
every individual power to attain salvation 
through the Redeemer; and, consequent- 
ly, that no individual is either originally 
reprobated, or subsequently passed by. 

To recur, then, to the arguments on 
which the conjunction of these doctrines 
it recommended. First, it is alleged that 

* This representation is not affected by the lan- 
guage ef some Calvinists, that every man may be 
saved if he mil. For if, as all Calvinists rightly 
maintain, the heart of every man is, by nature, un- 
willing, as well as unable, to turn unto God ; and if 
the gift of a measure of grace, sufficient to produce 
the will and to turn the heart, be limited to the elect; 
none but the elect can be saved. And, moreover, 
if any besides the elect can be saved, there is so far 
an end of the Calvinistic doctrine. 



179 

the Scriptures have not decided in favour 
of either doctrine. This position will, of 
course, be denied by persons who have sa- 
tisfied themselves on either side. The com- 
plete Calvinist regards the word of God as 
pronouncing for Calvinism; the Antical- 
vinist, for Anticalvinism. But suppose 
the position admitted. What is the con- 
clusion which rightly ensues ? Certainly 
not that the two doctrines are to be con- 
joined and amalgamated. The scriptural 
Christian follows the Scriptures. That 
which they affirm, he affirms ; that which 
they reject, he rejects; on that which they 
leave undecided, he does not decide. If 
a person is persuaded that they deliver 
the doctrines termed Calvinistic ; he acts 
consistently in believing them, and in de- 
claring himself a Calvinist. If he is con- 
vinced that the Bible teaches not those 
tenets, but the reverse ; he acts consis- 
tently in rejecting them, and in avowing 
himself an Anticalvinist. If he is of opi- 
nion that the Bible leaves the question 
between Calvinistic and Anticalvinistic 
positions undetermined; he will act con- 
sistently in refraining from forming a 
i 6 



180 

positive determination respecting them. 
But on what ground is he told, concern- 
ing two doctrines, that the Scripture lias 
not decided between them, and that, in 
consequence, he is to unite and to main- 
tain both ? 

An attempt, however, is made to sup- 
ply the deficient link in the argument. It 
is said, that the Scriptures contain both 
the doctrines; and that the Christian is, 
therefore, to believe both. 

If this reasoning be valid, it amounts 
to a declaration, that the Christian will 
find in the word of God, and is, therefore, 
bound to believe, simple and palpable 
contradictions ; contradictions such, in 
their nature, as the plainest understand- 
ing is competent to perceive and to appre- 
ciate ; such as are analogous to those 
contradictions which common reason dis- 
cerns every day between adverse opinions 
on other subjects, and pronounces to be 
irreconcilable. That certain specific in- 
dividuals are selected from the human 
race, and predestinated, by a divine de- 
cree, to be the only persons who shall be 
saved ; and that, on the contrary, no 



181 

such exclusion is decreed, but that every 
person is actually and unequivocally en- 
abled, by the universal grace of God, to 
attain salvation through Christ : these 
are propositions as diametrically contra- 
dictory, as any two opposite statements 
which could be framed for the purpose 
of involving contradiction on any ordi- 
nary matter of fact. Surely we ought to 
be reverently cautious as to ascribing such 
contradictions to the word of God ! May 
not we be morally certain beforehand, 
that, whichever of the two opinions may 
be affirmed in Scripture, closer examin- 
ation will show that the other is not af- 
firmed also ? 

Still our Christian brethren, who re- 
commend the amalgamation of the opi- 
nions under consideration, reply, that the 
inconsistency in belief, or the contradic- 
tion, if so it must be denominated, is no 
other than that which, as they are per- 
suaded, subsists in the representations de- 
livered on the subject in the Scriptures ; 
that, consequently, it must be not a real 
contradiction, but a seeming incongruity; 
andthat they leave thereconcilementof the 



182 

inconsistency to God, who, in a future 
world, when our faculties shall be ren- 
dered capable of comprehending his ways 
and his counsels, will show the harmony 
of all his purposes, and of all his decla- 
rations, ever to have been perfect. And 
the answer is closed by advancing the se- 
cond of the two general arguments re- 
cently mentioned ; that we ought not to 
be surprised by apparent contrarieties on 
a topic involved in a mystery, which ever 
has been, and, in this world, ever will be 
impenetrable to the finite and feeble un- 
derstanding of man. 

In the examination of this statement, 
the contradiction between the two doc- 
trines will receive additional notice. But 
the clearest mode of proceeding will be, 
previously to direct our attention to the 
alleged mystery. It is a mystery which, 
however commonly brought forward in 
support of Calvinistic interpretations of 
Scripture, has no proper place, as I ap- 
prehend, in the argument; but has its own 
station apart in a different /egion of en- 
quiry. 



183 

What is the mystery ? It is the har- 
mony of the foreknowledge of God with 
the freedom of human actions and the 
moral responsibility of man. For us to 
point out and to develope the mode in 
which this harmony is carried into effect, 
is impossible. The attempt would be as 
vain as an endeavour to describe the mode 
of connexion and the process of instru- 
mentality by which mind acts upon mat- 
ter. But the impossibility of explanation 
as to the mode, does not alter the fact, 
nor the reasonableness of crediting it. 
For God has averred, that he foreknows all 
things from eternity; and also that man is a 
free moral agent, and justly responsible for 
his actions. These positions, which eter- 
nal truth affirms, Omnipotence can render 
practically compatible. Between the posi- 
tions themselves, there does not appear to 
human reason any inherent and necessary 
contradiction. And who denies their 
compatibility? Not the Anticalvinist : it 
is the basis of his doctrine. Not the 
Calvinist of modern times. For, to deny 
it, he perceives, would be to affirm, that 
man is a mere machine, and that God is 



184 

the author of sin ; tenets which, with 
whatever degree of inconsistency in the 
eyes of an opponent, the Calvinist dis- 
claims, and from his heart abominates. 
The case, then, stands thus. That the 
harmonizing of theforeknowledge of God, 
with the freedom of human actions and 
the moral responsibility of man, is, as to the 
mode, an inscrutable mystery; Calvinists 
and Anticalvinists equally acknowledge. 
That the Diety is omniscient, that man is 
a free agent, and justly responsible for 
his actions, and that these propositions 
are capable of being harmonized, and are 
actually harmonized, by an omnipotent 
God; both parties confess. Where, then, is 
there a place for the introduction of the 
mystery into any discussion respecting 
the combination of Calvinistic with An- 
ticalvinistic doctrines ? Or how can that 
mystery be advanced as an argument in 
behalf of such a combination ? 

The simple truth is, and it is a truth of 
which we ought never to lose sight in 
discussions on these topics, that the point 
at issue between Calvinists and Antical- 
vinists is a plain and mere matter of fact. 



185 

It is solely the question whether God has 
been pleased to determine and to decree 
to save certain individuals exclusively, 
and those selected by eternal and sove- 
reign predestination ; or, by moral power 
bestowed through his grace in Christ, has 
thought fit to place salvation actually and 
unequivocally within the attainment of 
every man. This question rests as much 
on a matter of fact, and on nothing but 
a matter of fact, as an enquiry would 
be whether it pleased the Supreme 
Being to create thefworld completely in 
three days, or in six ; or whether Pha- 
roah and his army, in pursuit of the 
Israelites, were drowned in the Red Sea, 
or in the River Nile. In each case the 
answer is to be sought, not in metaphysi- 
cal speculations, not in irrelevant mys- 
teries, not in vain desires and attempts 
to unite irreconcilable propositions ; but 
by referring to the Scriptures for inform- 
ation, resting in their decision, whatever 
it be, if they decide, and remaining 
undecided, if they do not pronounce. 

Dismissing, therefore, all farther con- 
sideration of that mystery, as of a subject 
irrelevant to the enquiry before us; let 



186 

our attention revert to the contradiction 
between the doctrines respectively and 
essentially characteristic of Calvinism and 
of Anticalvinism. The opposition be- 
tween them has been shown to be so di- 
rect and fundamental, that to adopt the 
one is to deny the other ; that so to hold 
the one that it shall not militate against 
the other, is, according to all comnton 
principles of reasoning, all recognised 
modes of conducting religious investiga- 
tions, an impossibility. 

It shall at once be admitted that there 
are passages in the sacred Volume, of 
which some, taken separately 5 speak in 
language apparently so favourable to 
Calvinism, others apparently so favour- 
able to Anticalvinism, as to seem mutu- 
ally discordant, or ostensibly to give to 
both systems a portion of scriptural coun- 
tenance. From this admission, which I 
have endeavoured to express in terms of 
entire impartiality, is it the legitimate in- 
ference, that we should blend and incor- 
porate the two systems ; that we should 
hold and maintain both ; that, when we 
meet in the Bible a text of one descrip- 
tion, we should inculcate from it Calvin- 



187 

ism ; when we open on a text of another 
semblance, Anticalvinism ? How differ- 
ent would such a train of proceeding be 
from the course which we adopt with re- 
spect to other passages of Scripture seem- 
ingly discordant ! And it came to pass, 
says Moses, that God did tempt Abraham. 
Let no man 9 pronounces St. James, my> 
when he is tempted^ I am tempted of God. 
What should we think, if we were advised 
to take these texts broadly, and without 
search for discriminating intimations in 
the context ; and from the authority of the 
former passage, to believe and to preach 
that God does tempt men, of the latter, 
thathe does not? In the example adduced, 
the solution of the seeming difficulty pre- 
sents itself on the first glance at the con- 
text. The temptation affirmed by Moses 
is simply a trial of faith ; the temptation 
denied by St. James is enticement to 
evil. And may not a closer scrutiny of 
contexts, a larger comparison of things 
spiritual with spiritual*, of the various 
passages of the Word of God which may 
bear upon the question, issue in satisfy- 
ing us, on sound moral evidence, that the 

• 1 Cor. it: 13. 



188 

Calvinistic and the Antiealvinistic texts 
relate to points not less disjoined, the one 
from the other, than the trial of the faith 
of Abraham, and an enticement to un- 
godliness ? May not the process of en- 
quiry terminate in proving, that the word 
predestinate, with other kindred expres- 
sions, relates only to the eternal purpose of 
God to redeem mankind by Christ; or 
that it has not for its scriptural meaning 
the predestination of individuals, but of 
bodies of men; and not to salvation, but 
to special privileges on earth ; or, if of in- 
dividuals, not to salvation, but to some par- 
ticular state, or office, or service on earth; 
or, if to salvation, conditionally on the per- 
formance of duties required from the indi- 
vidual as a free agent? Or, to put the case 
impartially the other way : may not the 
investigation end in showing that the 
Anticalvinist mistakes the import and the 
application of the texts on which he rests his 
doctrine? At any rate, is not this course of 
examinationthe measure to be adopted? A 
reply in the negative is not to be supposed. 
And what if the examination should leave 
the enquirer unconvinced ; should neither 
level the road for Anticalvinism, by re- 



189 

moving Calvinistic impediments, nor, for 
Calvinism, by sweeping away Antiealvi- 
nistic obstacles ? The enquirer will 
rightly remain in suspense between the 
doctrines, until continued researches into 
the Scriptures may enable him to decide. 
For amalgamating the two doctrines, he 
will have no ground whatever. 

This conclusion may be illustrated by 
taking, for an additional example, a doc- 
trine which divides and interests the 
Christian world not less than the predes- 
tinarian controversy ; -—the doctrine of 
transubstantiation. This is my body. 
This- is my blood. The bread which we 
break, is it not the communion of the body 
of Christ? The cup of blessing, which we 
bless, is it not the communion of the blood 
of Christ? These declarations assuredly 
appear as strong in favour of the real pre- 
sence, as any passages respecting election 
and predestination appear in favour of 
Calvinism. Other scriptural texts and 
considerations are as strong against the 
doctrine of the real presence, as other 
passages in the Word of God are in sup- 
port of the Anticalvinistic doctrine. Is 
there a single person existing who would 



190 

seriously tell us, that a well-instructed 
Christian is to believe that transubstanti- 
ation takes place in the Sacrament, and 
that it does not take place ; that he is to 
hold both the doctrines in a moderate 
degree, and so to maintain each, that it 
shall not militate against the other ; that 
the preacher, taking Scripture before him 
as he finds it, is from one set of sacramen- 
tal texts to preach transubstantiation ; 
from another set, to deny it ? To allege 
arguments against being guided by coun- 
sel, which no person would seriously 
offer, is unnecessary. But I apprehend, 
that every argument which might be 
urged against a proposition to amalga- 
mate transubstantiation and antitran- 
substantiation might be fairly transferred 
to the proposed amalgamation of Calvi- 
nism and Anticalvinism. 

Let me repeat, thatfor thedevouthumili- 
ty and the desire of brotherly union among 
Christians, and particularly in the Esta- 
blished Church, which to many minds 
have recommended the combination of 
opinions before us, I entertain unfeigned 
respect. But Christian unity and the 
peace of a Church cannot be secured, nor 



191 

for any long time promoted, by vain at- 
tempts to harmonise irreconcilable te- 
nets.* The feeble ties would inevitably 
and speedily break. The new cloth would 
not cohere with the old garment, and the 
rent would be made worse. The hour 
may come, when larger measures of the 
grace of God, accompanying the study of 
His sacred Word, may throw stronger il- 
lumination on the truth. In the mean 
time, let each enquirer modestly exa- 
mine and judge for himself, according to 
his ability, whether the Calvinistic or 
the Anticalvinistic interpretation of the 
Scriptures be the truth : and let both 
parties see that reciprocally they love as 
brethren. 

* Let no reader of Dr. Copleston's Enquiry into 
the Doctrines of Necessity and Predestination has- 
tily infer, from the concluding words of the note, 
p, 188, and of the appendix, p. 219, that the pro- 
positions which that able writer recommends to be 
jointly held, and neither of them to the exclusion of 
the other, are those, or similar to those, the irre- 
concilable contradiction between which I have en- 
deavoured to establish. Dr. Copleston's work was 
not seen by me until this Essay was gone to the 
press. 



ESSAY IV. 

ON THE LAWFUL EXTENT OF PROPHETICAL 
ENQUIRY. 



Among the general purposes for which it 
has pleased the Divine Wisdom, in suc- 
cessive ages, to vouchsafe prophetical 
communications to men ; one object has 
been to supply decisive evidence to the 
truth of the Scriptures, and of the doc- 
trines which they contain. The refer- 
ences frequently made by our Lord to 
the predictions of the Old Testament, 
and his applications of them to establish 
the fact, that he was the promised Mes- 
siah, ordained not only to die as a ran- 
som for the w T hole human race, but also 
to promulgate in every particular the 
will of God as to Christian faith and 
Christian holiness, place this conclusion 



193 

beyond the reach of controversy. O fools, 
and slow of heart to believe all that the 
prophets have spoken ! Ought not Christ 
to have suffered these things, and to enter 
into his glory ? And beginning at Moses 
and all the prophets, he expounded unto 
them in all the Scriptures the things con- 
cerning himself. These are the words 
which I spake unto you, that all things 
must be fulfilled which were written in the 
prophets concerning me. * Hence, after 
the ascension of Christ, we find the 
apostles, in their labours for the conver- 
sion of the Jews, studiously appealing to 
the testimony of the prophets. St. Peter, 
in his address to the Gentile, Cornelius, 
who had antecedently become acquainted 
with the Jewish Scriptures, pursued the 
same course ; and averred that to Jesus, 
give all the prophets witness, that through 
his name, whosoever believeth in him shall 
receive remission of sins.f And in the 
Apocalypse, an angel compendiously de- 
clares to St. John, that the testimony of 
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. X 

* Luke, xxiv. 25. 21. 44. f Acts, x. 43. 

J Rev. xix. 10. 

K 



194 

For the confirmation of the faith of be- 
lievers in Christ, and for its diffusion 
among unbelievers, in these later ages of 
the world, and in the periods which are 
yet to succeed before the day of final 
judgement, the testimony of prophecy 
possesses a fitness so peculiar, as singu- 
larly to illustrate and to magnify the con- 
summate wisdom and goodness of God. 
The evidence of miracles performed by 
our Saviour, and subsequently by his 
apostles and the rest of his gifted fol- 
lowers during the first publication of the 
gospel, evidence which, when once sub- 
stantiated, cannot be despoiled of a par- 
ticle of its validity by the lapse of ten 
thousand generations, may appear, to the 
careless eye, dim and indefinite, when 
viewed backward amidst the haze of 
faded centuries. Those stupendous oper- 
ations of divine power and love, in which 
the arm of the Lord was revealed for the 
conviction of the Jew and of the Gentile, 
are now compared by the daring scoffer, 
and in sneers successful upon unstable 
minds, to the visionary shapes which folly 
may imagine, or falsehood may pretend 



195 

to discern, in the fogs of a remote hori- 
zon. But prophecy is a stream of light, 
slender and pale at the source, broaden- 
ing and brightening as it advances on- 
wards ; and will spread itself into a larger 
and still larger flood of radiance in every 
successive portion of its progress. Time, 
which may seem to impair the attestation 
of miracles, is constantly invigorating and 
amplifying the demonstrations of pro- 
phecy. The fancied deficiency of mira- 
culous evidence is far more than coun- 
tervailed. The fulfilment of the word of 
Him who appoints the event from the be- 
ginning, whose counsels are from ever- 
lasting, whokno ws neither variableness nor 
shadow of turning, who has declared his 
determination long before by his servants 
the prophets, and accomplishes his will 
by the overruled instrumentality of hu- 
man agents absorbed in the pursuit of 
their own plans and interests, confounds 
every sophism ; lays opposition prostrate ; 
and will constrain every tongue to con- 
fess to God, and every knee to bow to 
his Incarnate Son. 

K c 2 



196 

Another of the purposes contemplated 
by the Holy Spirit in his prophetic com* 
munications, is to prepare men, and spe- 
cially in the way of warning or of com- 
fort, for the events which are announced. 
There shall rise, said our Lord to his 
disciples, false Christs, and false prophets, 
and shall do great signs and t wonders, in* 
somuch that, if it were possible, they shall 
deceive the very elect. Behold, I have 
told you before. These things have I 
spoken unto you, that ye should not be of 
fended. They shall put you out of the 
synagogues : yea, the time cometh, that 
whosoever hilleth you will think that he 
doeth God service. These things have I 
told you, that when the time shall come ye 
may remember that 1 told you of them. 
These things have I spoken unto you, that 
in me ye might have peace.* In a similar 
manner were predictions applied to edi- 
fication by the apostles. We sent Ti- 
motheus to establish you, and to comfort 
you concerning your faith, that no man 
should be moved by these afflictions : for 

* Matth. xxiv. 24, 25. — John, xvi. 1. 4. 33. 



197 

yourselves know that we are appointed 
thereunto. For verily, when we were with 
you, we told you before, that we shoidd 
suffer tribulation. Beloved, think it not 
strange concerning the jiery trial which is 
to try you, as though some strange thing 
happened unto you ; but rejoice.* In- 
telligence that a season of peril draws 
nigh is an admonition to vigilance, an 
exhortation to exertion. Intelligence 
that calamity will be in due time super- 
seded, is an encouragement to patient 
and cheerful endurance. What com- 
mander would not desire to be apprized 
of the approach and the strength of the 
enemy? Where is the mariner who would 
not be animated and consoled in the 
tempest, by foreknowing that it will 
speedily terminate in calm and sunshine ? 
Respecting enquiries into the import 
of prophecies yet unaccomplished, two 
leading errors prevail. 

I. The first of these errors is, unwar. 
ranted particularity of interpretation. 
To the indulgence of this unauthorized 

* 1 Thess. iii. 2. 4. — 1 Peter, iv. 12. 13. 
K 3 



198 

and dangerous propensity various causes 
separately or jointly conduce. One cause 
is, the ardour which accompanies and sti- 
mulates the investigation of pre-emi- 
nently sublime and highly interesting 
subjects. Another impulse of peculiar 
force is, the universal earnestness to ex- 
plore inlets into futurity ; the gratifica- 
tion inherent in the supposed attainment 
of glimpses into the hidden counsels of 
Omnipotence. Then comes the longing 
desire which ever pervades the breast of 
the pious and reflecting Christian for 
the rapid progress and establishment 
upon earth of the kingdom of his Re- 
deemer ; and a corresponding solicitude 
to discover tokens of the approach of 
that blessed period, the object of his daily 
prayer. Hence follows unwearied and 
scrutinizing observation of the move- 
ments, the changes, the collisions, the 
political, moral, and religious state, past, 
present, and probable, of the kingdoms 
of this world, all of which he knows are 
to become the kingdoms of the Lord and 
of his Christ ; and particularly of those 
countries and nations, which are distin- 



199 

guished in the predictions concerning the 
latter days as the special objects of the 
Spirit of Prophecy. Is it a matter of 
wonder, if even the devout and humble 
follower of Christ, amidst such contem- 
plations and enquiries, prospects and 
hopes, be occasionally hurried away be- 
yond the limits of cautious and valid ex- 
position ? Is it a matter of wonder, if, at 
times, he conceives himself to discern 
details, to have established connexions, 
to have realised conjectures, to have con- 
solidated the certainty of anticipations ; 
while yet he has been erecting his struc- 
ture on a basis altogether inadequate and 
precarious ? Still less can there be reason 
for surprise, if, in successive ages, men 
of unchastised imaginations, of hasty 
judgement, of overweening confidence 
in themselves, or unfurnished with the 
stores of scriptural and historical know- 
ledge indispensable in every attempt for 
the elucidation of prophecy, should have 
deviated into wild and presumptuous 
theories ; and in the very face of the great 
internal landmarks of prophecy, should 
have forced every circumstance into ac- 
k 4 



200 

commodation to their system, and con- 
strained each passing event to take its 
place in the prophetic niche which they 
assigned to it ; a station from which, ere 
long, it was to be delivered by the down- 
fal of the whole building erected upon 
the sand. 

If the temporary progress, and the 
subsequent demolition, of rash and vi- 
sionary theories were the only results of 
the lucubrations of unguarded and bold 
interpreters of prophecy ; the evil would 
not be very considerable. And that evil 
would be in part compensated by the 
tendency of such failures to produce an 
increase of modesty and sobriety in fu- 
ture expositors. But what is the general 
and great injury which ensues? It is 
the bringing of the prophetical scriptures 
into discredit. The world learns to re- 
gard, and delights to represent, the pro- 
phetic writings as a mass of obscure 
allegories and desultory rhapsodies, in 
which every wrong-headed fabricator of a 
system may find whatever he desires ; a 
mass in which a man of understanding 
will never find that which will repay him 



201 

for the trouble of examination. When a 
man has so far ceased to be mindful of the 
words which were spoken before by the holy 
prophets; it will not require many addi- 
tional steps to convey him into the ranks 
of the scoffers, who were to come in the 
last days, walking after their own lusts, 
and saying, " Where is the promise of his 
" coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, 
" all things continue as they were from the 
" beginning of the creation" * 

II. The other erroneous opinion to 
which I have alluded, is the following: 
that anticipatory investigation of future 
events does not lie within the province 
of prophetical study ; that the business 
of the Christian as to the subjects of pre- 
dictions, is simply to wait until the fore- 
told events shall have taken place. Then, 
by comparing the accomplishment with 
the prediction, shall he strengthen him- 
self in his holy faith ; and learn to adore 
with augmented reverence the Omni- 
scient Wisdom of the Most High. 

These sentiments are not unfrequently 
entertained by persons of devout minds j 

* 2 Pet. iii. 2— 4. 
K 5 



202 

and are confirmed in such minds by the 
multiplicity of jarring interpretations 
with which expositors have bewildered 
their readers. -I apprehend, however, 
that the opinion may be decisively shown 
to be destitute of foundation. 

Let it be, in the first place, con- 
sidered, that this opinion, if just, would 
nearly, or altogether, nullify one of the 
great practical purposes for which, as 
already has been evinced, prophetic re- 
velations were vouchsafed ; namely, to 
excite and enable men to prepare them- 
selves beforehand for the arrival of the 
events announced. If it be unlawful, in 
studying the prophetic scriptures, mo- 
destly to look forward, so far as a guid- 
ing light may be discovered, into their 
probable import; how is it that the study 
can specially contribute to the prepar- 
ation ? How is the student to discern 
the probable event for which preparation 
is to be made ? When ye shall see, 
said our Lord, the abomination of desol- 
ation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, 
stand in the Holy Place — "whoso readeth, 
let him understand — then let them which 



203 

be in Judeaflee into the mountains.* If the 
persons addressed were not to strive so to 
understand beforehand the prophetic 
words of Daniel as to obtain that insight 
into the nature of the predicted abomin- 
ation, which should qualify them at once 
to recognize it when it should appear: how 
were they to perceive when the time for 
their flight to the mountains was arrived ? 
Behold, I come quickly. Behold, I come 
as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, 
and keepeth his garments ; lest he walk 
naked, and they see his shame, f These 
are declarations and admonitions of our 
Saviour, when announcing events to be- 
fal his Church in the latter days. Where, 
if the opinion in question were just, 
would be the cautionary importance of 
the declarations, and the specific pertin- 
ence and benefit of the admonitions ? 

In the next place, if the study of the 
prophetic writings be permitted and pur- 
sued, whether in the way of preparation 
against future events, or of contem- 
plating events which have taken place 

* Matth. xxiv. 15, 16. 
f Rev. xvi. 15. xxii. f. 
K 6 



204 

in conjunction with the prophecy of 
which they were the accomplishment ; 
in short, if the study be permitted and 
pursued at all ; anticipatory investigation 
respecting events yet to come is to a 
certain extent inevitable. The invest- 
igation will ensue, or the study must be 
renounced. In thus stating the alterna- 
tive, I am not inviting in the first branch 
of it the attention of the reader to the 
proposition, true as it is, that human 
curiosity, however strongly forewarned, 
will ever be tending to indulge itself in 
forbidden speculations. My meaning is, 
that in the very subject itself there is 
essentially involved a degree of prospec- 
tive enquiry, lawful because inevitable. 
The events which prophecy announces 
to the Christian Church are not in- 
dependent and insulated occurrences. 
They form an intimately connected and 
a closely coherent series. They are links 
of an inseparable chain ; parts of an in- 
divisible whole. If an enquirer is to en- 
deavour to satisfy himself whether some 
particular event be the fulfilment of any 
given prediction j can he cherish a ra- 



205 

tional hope of attaining to a probable 
conclusion by examining that portion of 
prophecy singly, by disjoining it from 
the context, by severing it from its ex- 
planatory localities ? Is he resolutely to 
shut his eyes at the end of a certain 
verse of a certain chapter, lest some con- 
jecture as to the next step in the series, 
some conception as to the succeeding 
link in the chain, should obtrude itself 
upon his reflections ? How, in general, 
is he even to ascertain the termination 
of the prophetic passage with which past 
circumstances are presumed to corre- 
spond, but by carrying his examination 
forward into subsequent passages, con- 
cerning which it cannot be known with- 
out deliberate research whether they 
belong to the circumstances in question 
or not? These remarks may be ex- 
tended to other prophecies seemingly 
analogous to the former, and evidently 
demanding to be compared with it ; con- 
cerning each of which predictions also 
similar research is indispensable. To con- 
duct these researches, without forming 



206 

some anticipations as to parts of the 
future train of events, is impracticable. 

Farther. The kind of anticipatory en- 
quiry, against which the opinion under 
discussion is often opposed with the most 
pointed earnestness is, the computation 
of chronological predictions. " Let not 
" man," it is said, "presume to explore 
" the commencement of the unfulfilled 
" prophetical period : in due time it will 
" be revealed by the termination." This 
argument is particularly directed against 
all modern enquiries into the dates of two 
periods respectively; that of the two thou- 
sand three hundred years announced by 
the prophet Daniel, as to elapse before the 
cleansing of the sanctuary; and thatof the 
twelve hundred and sixty years assigned in 
the writings of the same prophet, and also 
in the Apocalypse, for the triumphant do- 
mination of the Roman Wild Beast, and 
of his Little Horn, over the faithful fol- 
lowers of Christ.* Under the present 
head I shall simply state, that the opinion 
stands in manifest contradiction to the 

* Daniel, viii. 13, 14. vii. 23. 25- xii. 7. — Rev. xi. 
% 3. xiii. 5. 



207 

analogy of Scripture* The general plan 
which it appears to have pleased the Di- 
vine Wisdom to adopt, with respect to 
chronological prophecies, is this. On 
the one hand, such a portion of obscurity 
is commonly thrown over the epoch 
whence the commencement of the period 
is to be dated, as may prevent the actual 
year of the date from being definitively 
ascertained, until the period shall have 
approached or reached its close ; that 
the accurate knowledge may come too 
late to enable man to take advantage of 
the prophecy for the furtherance of pur- 
poses of delusion, or in any way to mingle 
himself with the accomplishment of the 
prediction, and thus to impair the evi- 
dence of its divine origin. On the other 
hand, such a degree of light, discover- 
able by attentive examination, is permit- 
ted to gleam amidst the dimness, as shall 
be sufficient to enable the patient en- 
quirer to approximate so nearly to the 
precise date as to discern, in a manner 
somewhat indeterminate, yet not sub- 
stantially precarious, the time of the con- 
cluding event. Thus, in the prophecy 



SOS 

of Daniel concerning the appearance of 
our Lord in human nature, the precise 
date of the four hundred and ninety years, 
which were to commence from the is- 
suing of a decree by the king of Persia 
for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, was ob- 
scured by the difficulty or the impossibi- 
lity of antecedently deciding from which 
of three such decrees, promulgated at 
not very long intervals, the period was 
to be computed. Thus were " false 
" Christs" precluded from successfully 
building their pretensions on the appli- 
cation of the prophecy to a specific year. 
Yet was the date so circumscribed within 
discoverable limits, that the general sea- 
son, so to speak, of the termination of the 
period was rendered manifest. Hence, 
about the time of the appearance of Jesus, 
the minds of men were on the stretch of 
expectation for the Messiah. So clear 
was the conviction of his approach, that 
no sooner had intelligence been conveyed 
to Jerusalem, that an extraordinary 
man was preaching and baptizing in the 
wilderness, than a deputation of priests 
and Levites was dispatched to John so- 



209 

lemnly to enquire of him whether he was 
the Christ.* It seems, indeed, scarcely 
possible profitably to obey, in the case of 
a chronological prophecy, the scriptural 
direction to prepare, by means of the 
prophecy, for the event; if devout in- 
vestigation may not hope to obtain some 
glimpses of insight as to the time, when 
the ordained event is to arrive. 

Evidence, however, more direct in sup- 
port of the view which has been taken of 
the subject may yet be produced. If we 
proceed to the express injunctions and 
promises of Scripture, we may perceive, 
not only the lawfulness, but, in the case 
of duly qualified individuals, the obliga- 
tion, of giving reverent attention to the 
study of prophecies hitherto unaccom- 
plished. We have also a more sure word 
of prophecy ^ whereunto ye do well that ye 
take heed as unto a light that shineth in a 
dark place, until the day dawn and the 
day-star arise in your hearts. Blessed is 
he that readeth, and they that hear the 
words of this prophecy, and keep those 
things which are written therein ; for the 

* John i. 19, &c. 



210 

time is at hand. Here is wisdom i let him 
that hath understanding count the number 
of the Beast : for it is the number of a 
man ; and his number is six hundred three- 
score and six. Behold, I come quickly : 
blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of 
the prophecy of this book. O Daniel, shut 
up the word and seal the book even to the 
time of the end : many shall run to and 
fro, and knowledge shall be encr eased. 
None of the wicked shall understand ; but 
tlie wise shall understand. And he saith 
unto me, seal not the sayings of the pro- 
phecy of this book, for the time is at hand.* 
From these passages, supplied by the Old 
and by the New Testament, we learn, 
that the humble and devout examination 
of unfulfilled prophecy is one of the du- 
ties of the members of the church of 
Christ. And for these reasons among 
others : that the accomplishment of the 
predictions is continually in a state of 
progress, and that we know not, respect- 
ing various of the events predicted, how 
nearly they may be approaching ; that, 

* 2 Peter i. 4.— Rev. i. 3. xiii. 18. xxii. 7. — Da- 
niel, xii. 4. 10. 



21! 

to the discharge of the duty, a special 
blessing is annexed ; and that, although 
the complete developement of the im* 
port of prophecy will not be manifested 
until the time of consummation, when 
the mystery of God shall be finished, as he 
hath declared to his servants the prophets* ; 
and during the intervening period nu- 
merous interpretations contradictory or 
extravagant shall contribute to perplex 
the enquirer ; yet, among the truly wise, 
among those who are blessed with Chris* 
tian doctrine in its purity, and in their 
lives are faithful servants of the Lord 
Jesus Christ t, prophetic discoveries shall 
be constantly advancing. Knowledge 
shall be increased: the wise shall under* 
stand. 

Another argument remains to be stated. 
Meditation, properly conducted, on unac- 
complished prophecy appears to be one 
of the appointed and most efficacious 
methods, by which the Christian Church 

* Rev. x. 7- 

f For proof that this is the meaning of the term 
" wise," in the present passage, compare Daniel, xi. 
33. 35. xii. 3. 10. 



212 

is to be defended against the delusiveness 
of false expositions. The Holy Spirit has 
inserted into the prophetic writings sun- 
dry landmarks, territorial and chronolo- 
gical ; by a careful observation and ap- 
plication of which, the succession and the 
relative bearings of predicted events are 
to be ascertained. Without close and 
prospective study of these landmarks, 
interspersed too as they may be and 
blended with new circumstances in other 
parallel prophecies by others of the sacred 
penmen, it may be impracticable to dis- 
criminate a past event from some pre- 
dicted event, yet future and remote, of a 
similar kind. Bring the past event in 
question to the test of those criteria ; 
and the proposed interpretation may be 
strengthened, or its erroneousness may 
at once be made manifest. Suppose, for 
example, that when the northern barba- 
rians in the fifth century sacked and 
desolated the city of Rome, Christian 
interpreters in that age, who well knew 
Rome to be the Babylon of the New 
Testament, were applying to those 
calamities, like all modern Catholic ex- 



213 

pounders, from Bishop Bossuet to Bishop 
Walmesley *, the predictions of the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth chapters of the 
Apocalypse. The general descriptions 
of slaughter, devastation, and demolition, 
prominent in those chapters, might ap- 
pear sufficiently to characterize the ra- 
vages of Genseric and Totila. But what 
if the prophetic landmarks were con- 
sulted ? They would be seen decisively 
to pronounce, that, antecedently to the 
Apocalyptic overthrow of Rome, the an- 
cient western empire was to be subverted, 
and its territory to be subdivided into 
ten independent sovereignties ; and, in 
consequence, that the suggested interpret- 
ation was totally and radically inadmis- 
sible. 

On the whole, the course of discussion 
which has been pursued seems to have 
conducted us safely to the two following 
inferences: That all prophetical investi- 
gations are uniformly to be carried for- 
ward in a spirit of deep and humble piety, 
with sober discretion, with patient study, 

~* Respecting Bishop Walmesley's exposition, see 
Faber's Dissertations, vol. iii. p. 304?. &c. 



214 

with freedom from prepossession, with a 
simple love of truth, with entire readi- 
ness to abandon, on better evidence and 
information, conclusions previously adopt- 
ed : and, that with these qualifications, 
and under these restrictions, researches 
into prophecy fulfilled and unfulfilled are 
lawful, and form a constituent part of the 
duty of the Church of Christ. 



215 



ESSAY V. 



ON THE LITTLE BOOK OF THE TENTH 
CHAPTER OF THE APOCALYPSE. * 



1 he explanations given by eminent com- 
mentators respecting the Little Book de- 
livered to the apostle John by the angel, 
have appeared to me in different points 
defective and unsatisfactory, I venture, 
therefore, to propose for consideration 
the following remarks, intended to illus- 
trate the nature of that Book. 

It seems to be generally admitted, that 
the mighty angel who holds the Little 
Book is either our Lord Jesus Christ 
himself, under the form of an angel ; or 
an angel arrayed as the immediate and 

* The substance of this Essay was originally 
published, in the year 1807> in a respectable periodi- 
cal work. 



216 

symbolical representative of Christ. The 
validity of the supposition is sustained 
by a comparison of the description of 
this angel (Rev. x. 1.) with the antece- 
dent description of our Lord, Rev. 
i. 13 — 16. The rainbow, also, appar- 
ently the symbol of the covenant of Re- 
demption, and as such surrounding the 
throne of God (iv. 3.), invests this angel. 
Possibly, too, there maybe some reference 
in the expression, " as a lion roareth" 
(x. 3.), to the previously mentioned 
" Lion of the tribe of Judah" (v. 5.) ; a 
conclusion countenanced by the circum- 
stance that both passages are connected 
with the opening of a book of prophecy. 
At any rate, it is beyond controversy that 
the language of this angel (xi. 3.), " I 
will give power unto My witnesses/' de- 
cides that he is Christ, or that he speaks 
and acts in the person of our Saviour. 

The Little Book in the hand of the 
angel is, characteristically, a book con- 
sisting of prophecies. For it is comprised 
in the general prophecy of the Apoca- 
lypse : and John is directed to " eat it," 
in order that he may "prophecy again 
13 



217 

before many peoples and nations, and 
tongues and kings ;" (x. 11.) as Ezekiel 
had been commanded to eat a prophetic 
roll of a book, open, likewise, as this de- 
livered to St. John, for the purpose of 
becoming qualified to deliver certain 
predictions.* Hence the error seems 
manifest of Daubuz, who regards the 
Little Book as emblematical of those 
doctrinal parts of the gospel which are 
opposed to the corruptions of Popery. 
Hence, also, we are prevented from ac- 
cording with those numerous comment- 
ators, respecting whom Vitringa justly 
observes, Longe discedo ab Mis interpret 
tibus, qui per hunc Libellum intelligunt 
Scripturam sane tarn t : commentators who 
understand the Little Book to mean the 
whole volume of Scripture. 

The events to befal the Church are 
revealed only through Christ. So it is 
expressly declared in the very first words 
of the Apocalypse. In conformity with 
this declaration, the entire book, con- 

* Ezek. ii. 7—10. iii. 1—4. 
f Apoc. exposit. &c- p. 426. 
L 



218 

taining the prospective account of these 
events, is represented (v. 1 — 5. ) as a 
sealed book, which could not be opened 
by angel nor by man, nor by departed 
spirit ; and was to be unsealed only by 
our Lord. And it is the Lamb (vi. 1. &c.) 
by whom all the seals are successively 
opened. 

As the book of futurity, in the hand 
of Him who sits on the throne, (v. 1.) 
appears to be exclusively that volume of 
prophecy which our Lord is to open for 
the information of St. John and of the 
Church j as that volume cannot be sup- 
posed imperfect, and needing a subsid- 
iary addition ; and as it is evidently a 
roll constituted by the union of seven 
smaller and separate rolls, each secured 
by its own seal : we are constrained, in 
opposition to the authority of Mede and 
of other expositors agreeing with him, to 
conclude, that the Little Book delivered 
by the angel to St. John is not an addi- 
tional book of predictions, but is either 
the whole of the original Sealed Book, or 
one, or a portion of one, of the smaller 



219 

component rolls, which Christ has been 
described in the antecedent chapters as 
opening. 

Bishop Hurd and Mede agree in as- 
signing the fourth and the five following 
chapters of the Apocalypse to the Sealed 
Book, and the remaining thirteen chap- 
ters to the Little Book. This distribution 
is marked in the outset by the strange 
incongruity of representing the book spe- 
cifically termed little, as larger than the 
Sealed Book. In the case of the Bishop, 
the incongruity becomes the greater ; as, 
under the influence of an hypothesis, to 
which it will speedily be necessary to ad- 
vert, he regards the Sealed Book itself as 
" of an immense size." How then is the 
still larger book to be termed little ? The 
Bishop alleges, that the open book is 
termed little, " that the metaphor of eat- 
ing it might seem the easier."* It does 
not appear requisite to add more on this 
topic, except to observe, that when Eze- 
kiel is directed to eat the roll of a book, 

* Sermons on the Prophecies, 4th edition, vol. ii. 
p. 134— 136. note. 

L 2 



220 

no diminutive term is employed to make 
the metaphor the easier. Such a term, 
therefore, even if the extraordinary and 
decisive incongruity which has been 
stated were capable of being obviated, 
could not be needful to ease the meta- 
phor in the similar direction to St. John. 
The hypothesis to which I have allud- 
ed, as maintained by Bishop Hurd, in 
common with various expositors, and as 
inducing him to deem the Sealed Book 
" of immense size," is this : that the rolls 
composing the Sealed Book consisted of 
a series of pictures representing the events 
described by St. John ; and that the pic- 
tures were successively unfolded to the 
view of the Apostle by the opening of the 
seals. The complete erroneousiaess of 
this opinion is easily demonstrated. For, 
first; The contents of the Sealed Book 
are declared (v. 1.) to be writing. Se- 
condly; Its visions comprise multitudes 
of animated beings, whom St. John be- 
holds moving, and hears speaking ; cir- 
cumstances radically irreconcilable with 
the nature of painted representation. 
Thirdly; In one of the visions (xv.70 one 



221 

of the four living creatures, which were 
not manifested to St. John in conse- 
quence of the opening of the Sealed 
Book, but were seen by him (iv. 6. — 9) 
in active existence before the Sealed 
Book was named, gives the seven vials to 
the seven angels; that is to say, on the 
Bishop's hypothesis, the living creature 
gives the vials to the pictures of seven 
angels. The fact respecting the Sealed 
Book seems to be, that the Book is to be 
considered as containing a written pro- 
phetical history of events awaiting the 
Christian Church j and that on the open- 
ing of each seal, St. John was favoured 
with one or more actual, not pictured, 
visions, emblematically representing the 
events of the written narrative contained 
in the particular roll then unsealed. 

Sir Isaac Newton affirms*, that the 
Little Book is identically the same with 
the entire Sealed Book : that it is u the 
" book which He (Christ) had newly 
" opened ; for he received but one book 
" from Him that sitteth on the throne :" 

* Observations on Daniel and the Apocalypse, 
p. 209. 271. 

L 3 



222 

and that the eating of it " implies being 
" inspired in a vigorous and extraordi- 
" nary manner with the prophecy of the 
" whole book ; and, therefore, signifies a 
" lively repetition of the whole prophecy 
" by way of interpretation/ 5 To this 
opinion there are two powerful objec- 
tions: First; It is difficult to assign a so- 
lid reason why the original book should 
now be denominated a Little Book. The 
difference of appellation is an argument 
that the books are not the same* And the 
Sealed Book, when opened and unrolled, 
would be very greatly augmented in ap- 
parent magnitude. Secondly; Some most 
important predictions, those, for example, 
which have been recorded in the ninth 
chapter, do not seem to be repeated, nor 
in any degree to be present to the mind 
of St. John, after the eating of the Little 
Book. 

I apprehend, consequently, that the 
Little Book is one, or a portion of one, 
of the component and already opened 
rolls of the book originally delivered to 
the Lamb. 

If so, what roll, or portion may we 
presume it to have been ? 



223 

That roll, we may presume, or a portion 
of that roll, which our Lord had opened, 
the last. The . Apocalyptic prophecies 
being chronologically arranged under the 
seals and trumpets, we can scarcely con- 
ceive, that when a single roll, or a por- 
tion of a roll, was given to St. John, in 
order to qualify him for delivering addi- 
tional predictions ; it would be one whose 
place and extent in the chronological di- 
visions were wholly past, and had been 
succeeded by the contents of another 
roll, or of another portion of a roll. 

But our Lord had already opened all 
the seven seals. Are we then to conclude 
that He delivered to the Apostle the 
whole of the seventh roll ? Apparently 
not. For, in the first place, a great part 
of its contents, including the characteris- 
tic events of five of the trumpets, and a 
part of those of the sixth, had been al- 
ready declared. So that, as it was not ne- 
cessary that St. John should repeat the same 
identical predictions ; it does not appear for 
what purpose that part of the roll which 
contained those events should be deliver- 
ed to him. And in the next place, I be- 
l 4 



224 

lieve that it will be manifest, when the 
extent of the Little Book comes under 
discussion, that many remaining events of 
the seventh seal are not included within 
the Little Book. The part, therefore, of 
the seventh roll which relates to them was 
not likely to be delivered to the Apostle; 
and was in no respect more needful to be 
received and eaten by him, in order that 
he might prophecy of them, than it had 
been necessary for him to receive and eat 
the rolls of the former seals to qualify him 
to prophecy of the events comprehended 
in those seals. And hence it may appear, 
without additional argument, that Low- 
man, in common with some other com- 
mentators, is under a mistake, when he 
affirms that the Little Book is the entire 
remainder of thej>ealed Book. # 

The original term, j3//3xap*3io*>, or, as 
some manuscripts read, /3*/3?w8apjov, by 
which the Little Book is designated, 
seems of itself to indicate the nature of 
the portion of writing, which the Apostle 
received from the angel. From /3/0Ao£, 

* Paraphrase on the Revelation, &c. p. 137. 
note. 



225 

which primarily signifies the Egyptian 
flag Papyrus, and thence denotes a book, 
generally, as composed anciently of sheets 
of paper consisting of the separate lamince 
of thatfl^g, are derived /3i0?wov, sometimes 
used as a diminutive, sometimes as syno- 
nymous with fiifixog, and the following 
decided diminutives : (difixtiiov, fiifiXapiov, 
|3//3Xjapjov, and 3;$Xap/8/ov, fiif&h&apiov. 
The 0*|3?uov (v. 1.), in the hand of God, 
comprised seven distinct and separately 
sealed 0ij3xi8ia, or 0/0Xap/a, which in 
modern language may be termed parts. 
The 0//3?u<W, or /3/0Xap*ov, of the seventh 
seal, appears to have consisted of a num- 
ber of distinct smaller portions, fii&Xaptiia, 
or $;/3x*8ap/a, which we may name sections, 
singly corresponding w r ith the trumpets, 
or with the vials, or with some other spe- 
cific portions or divisions of the prophet- 
ical history comprehended under this seal. 
One, as I conceive, of these sections, 0//3- 
Xap/S/a, or /3;0?w8ap*a, our Lord* or his 
representative angel, gave to St. John. 

Two questions here present them- 
selves. 

L 5 



226 

I. Through what portion of the Apo- 
calypse do the contents of this 3/j3Xap*8iov, 
or Little Book, extend? 

II. What may we humbly conclude to 
have been the purpose, for which our 
Lord adopted this new mode of impart- 
ing the revelation of some particular 
events to his Apostle? 

In reply to the first question, the fol- 
lowing observations are offered to the 
scriptural enquirer. 

The portion of the eleventh chapter, 
from the first to the fourteenth verse in- 
clusively, which, in the opinion of Bishop 
Newton *, constitutes the whole of the 
Little Book ; and, in the general judge- 
ment of commentators, forms a part of 
it; is manifestly, as I conceive, no part 
of it whatever. It is a speech of the 
same angel who gave to St. John the 
Little Book, and is addressed to the 
apostle. Hence it cannot be a prophecy 
delivered by St. John in consequence of 
having eaten that book. It appears to 
be an introductory narrative by the an- 

* Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol.iii. p. 132. 



227 

gel, prophetical, however, and relating 
to the same period concerning which St. 
John subsequently prophecies out of the 
Little Book ; or concerning which, in 
other words, the apostle describes pro- 
phetic visions presented before him in 
consequence of his having eaten the 
Little Book, as antecedently he had de- 
scribed prophetic visions presented be- 
fore him in consequence of the opening 
severally of the earlier component parts 
of the Sealed Book, This narrative con- 
veys, for his preliminary instruction, a 
general sketch of the leading events 
which were to befal the Western Church 
during that period ; namely, the deep 
corruption and apostacy of that church, 
the persecution and depression of the 
faithful servants of Christ, and their zeal- 
ous perseverance and final triumph. The 
concluding words of the eighth verse, 
" where also our Lord was crucified," 
seem to contain a brief explanatory re- 
mark added as it were parenthetically 
by St. John, in relating the speech of the 
angel. Neither do the four verses suc- 
ceeding, from the fourteenth verse to the 
l 6 



228 

eighteenth inclusively, belong to the 
Little Book. When the angel draws his 
narrative to a close, at the ascension of 
the witnesses and the attendant earth- 
quake; he, or another speaker, announces 
the termination of the second Woe, whose 
effects on the Eastern Church had been 
detailed in the chapter preceding the ap- 
pearance of the angel with the Little 
Book. And speedily afterwards St. John 
hears the sounding of the seventh trum- 
pet, accompanied with acclamations of 
triumphant joy at the decisive judgements 
about to be inflicted under that trumpet 
on the enemies of God and our Lord. 
Then begin, at the nineteenth verse, the 
real contents, represented by visions, of 
the Little Book. They continue, as I 
think that Mr. Faber rightly judges, 
though I fear that I cannot in every 
point accede to his interpretation of 
them, to the end of the fourteenth chap- 
ter. The beginning of the fifteenth chap- 
ter marks the return, after the interpo- 
sition of the prophetic visions belonging 
to the Little Book, into the regular 
course of the original book under its se- 
13 



229 

venth seal. The seven angels, with the 
last plagues, constitute the last Woe, or 
seventh trumpet, announced (xi. 15.) on 
the termination of the angePs narrative, 
before the commencement of the visions 
of the Little Book. And this coincidence 
is corroborated by the similarity of the 
strains of triumph in the eleventh chapter, 
from the fifteenth to the eighteenth verse, 
with those in the third and fourth verses 
of the fifteenth chapter. 

With respect to the second question, 
we may, perhaps, be justified in conclud- 
ing, that the following were among the 
objects which our Lord, in changing the 
mode of imparting revelations to his 
apostle, was pleased to have in view : 
namely, to ensure distinctness between 
two sets of prophecies ; to mark the more 
strongly the importance of the subject 
developed in the Little Book ; and to 
excite the more lively attention to it. 

Suppose that the tenth chapter were 
taken away. The prophecies of the 
eleventh, and the twelfth, and the follow- 
ing chapters, in that case joining them- 
selves to those of the ninth chapter, would 
naturally have appeared to relate to the 






230 
I 

same part of the Christian church to which 
the predictions of the ninth chapter be- 
long, and to be a chronological continu- 
ation of them. The interposition and 
the circumstances of the vision in the 
tenth chapter effectually disjoin the two 
sets of prophecies ; and contribute, with 
the declaration of the angel in the 
eleventh verse of that chapter, to mark 
and establish the introduction of a new 
subject. 

The condition, through successive ages, 
of that part of the Christian church which 
is stationed within the ancient western 
empire of Rome, appears to be the most 
prominent object of prophetic detail in 
the Apocalypse ; and to be thus distin- 
guished, on account of the extreme and 
long-continued corruptions, with which 
that portion of the church would be over- 
spread ; of the tremendous judgements 
with which, in consequence, it should be 
visited j and of the widely-extended in- 
fluence which the corruption and the 
judgements would successively exercise 
upon the whole church of Christ through- 
out the world. The momentous nature 
of these events is forcibly indicated by 



, 



231 

the solemn delivery to St. John of the 
Little Book, containing a relation of 
them ; by the symbolical injunction in 
the ninth verse of the tenth chapter ; and 
by the command implied in the eleventh 
verse. 

The sublimity of the introductory vi- 
sion in the tenth chapter, the prelimi- 
nary narrative of the angel in the eleventh, 
and the studied distinctness and the so- 
lemnly manifested importance of the sub* 
ject brought forward, are singly and col- 
lectively fitted to call forth and to up- 
hold earnest attention to the contents of 
the Little Book. 



232 



ESSAY VI. 



ON OUR LORD'S PREDICTIONS RECORDED 
IN MATTH. XXlV. MARK, xiii. LUKE, Xxi. 



1 he prophecy contained in the three 
specified and parallel chapters of three 
of the evangelists was delivered by our 
Saviour in reply to questions proposed 
to him by his disciples, when he had an- 
nounced to them the impending and ut- 
ter demolition of the magnificent build- 
ings of the temple. With a mixture of 
astonishment and eagerness they enquired 
when that destruction should take place ; 
what signs should indicate its approach ; 
and what signs also should immediately 
precede his coming, his manifestation of 
himself in triumphant majesty, and the 
end of the world, (ruvraT^eiag rou aicovo$, 
the end of the then existing dispensation, 
which, in common with their country- 



233 

men, they expected speedily to be su- 
perseded by the establishment of the 
earthly kingdom of the Messiah. The 
expectation prevalent among all ranks of 
the Jews, that an earthly kingdom was to 
be established in Judea by the Messiah, 
is shown by the demand of the Pharisees, 
xvhen the kingdom of God should come *'; 
by the determined resolution of the 
people to make Christ, even by force, 
their king t ; and by the tenor of their 
acclamations on his public entrance into 
Jerusalem, % The anxious anticipations 
of the disciples respecting the establish, 
ment of this earthly kingdom, in which, 
according to their firm belief, their Lord 
was personally to reign in Jerusalem on 
the throne of his father David, to subju- 
gate to the people of Israel all their ad- 
versaries, and to exalt the companions of 
his humiliation to dignity, wealth, and 
power ; are disclosed by the repeated 
contests between the apostles, which of 
them was then to be the greatest ; by 

* Luke, xvii. 20. f John ; vi. 15. 

\ Mark, xi. 10. 






234 

the secret application made to Jesus by 
James and John for a promise before- 
hand of the highest offices in his future 
dominion ; by the enquiry of Peter, what 
recompence they, who had forsaken all 
things that they might follow him, should 
receive; by the strongly expressed dis- 
appointment of Cleopas ; " but we trust- 
" ed that it had been he which should 
" have redeemed Israel if and bv the 
concurrent question of the eleven after 
his resurrection, " Lord, wilt thou at this 
" time restore again the kingdom to Is- 
" rael ?" In the course of the prophecy 
before us, Jesus described, with copious 
particularity, the numerous tokens which 
should precede the siege and the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, and the entire 
desolation of Judea. This portion of the 
predictions may be considered as extend- 
ing inclusively to the twenty-eighth verse 
in the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Mat- 
thew, to the twenty-third verse in the 
thirteenth chapter of St. Mark, and to 
the middle of the twenty-fourth verse in 
the twenty-first chapter of St. Luke. 
The accurate fulfilment of these diver- 



235 

sified signs has been largely noticed by 
expositors ; and is detailed with particular 
distinctness by Archbishop Newcome, 
in his volume on our Lord's conduct as 
a divine instructor.* On that portion, 
therefore, of the prophecy it does not 
appear necessary to dilate. 

The remainder of the prophecy seems 
to have caused the chief perplexity to in- 
terpreters. Some have understood it as 
relating to signs which should be imme- 
diate forerunners of the Day of Judge- 
ment. Others have referred it to the 
former subject, the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, and the dispersion of the Jews by 
the Romans ; or have considered the two 
subjects as in some measure combined, 
and the former to be emblematically em- 
ployed to predict the latter. Two modern 
writers of deserved eminence, Mr. Faber 
and Mr. Cuninghame, unite in maintain- 
ing w r ith Mede, that the passages relate, 

* 2d edition, p. 202 — 277. But from the opinion 
of the learned prelate, that the parallel prophecies 
before us are restricted to the subversion of Jeru- 
salem, and of the Jewish polity, by Titus, I am 
compelled to dissent. 



236 

not to the victories of Titus, but to the pe- 
riod intervening between the conclusion 
of the twelve hundred and sixty years of 
Papal domination in the Church of Christ 
and the commencement of the millen- 
nium, the period in which, among many 
glorious steps of progress in " the resti- 
tution of all things," the conversion and 
the restoration of the twelve tribes shall 
be accomplished. And Mr. Faber con- 
siders the question of the disciples and 
the concluding part of our Lord's answer 
as comprehending within their scope the 
final Day of Judgement, after the resur- 
rection of the dead. The reasoning by 
which these writers support the general 
position in which they agree is powerful. 
It appears, however, to leave room for 
additional investigation on the subject. 

The observations about to be made 
may best be understood and appreciated 
by the reader, if the corresponding parts 
of the prophecy to which they will refer 
be placed before him, from the three 
Evangelists, in parallel columns. 



237 



Matth xxiv. 



Mark, xiii. 



29. Immediately 
after the tribula- 
tion of those days, 
shall the sun be 
darkened, and the 
moon shall not 
give her light, and 
the stars shall fall 
from heaven, and 
the powers of the 
heavens shall be 
shaken. 



24. But in those 
days, after that tri- 
bulation, the sun 
shall be darkened 
and the moon shall 
not give her light. 
25. And the stars 
of heaven shall fall, 
and the powers 
that are in heaven 
shall be shaken. 



SO. And then 
shall appear the 
sign of the Son of 
Man in heaven : 
and then shall all 
the tribes of the 
earth mourn; and 
they shall see the 
Son of Man com- 
ing in the clouds 
of heaven with 
power and great 
glory. 

31. And he shall 
send his angels 
with a great sound 
of a trumpet, and 



26. And then 
shall they see the 
Son of Man com- 
ing in the clouds 
with great power 
and glory. 



Luke, xxi. 

24. And Jeru- 
salem shall be trod- 
den down of the 
Gentiles, until the 
times of the Gen- 
tiles shall be ful- 
filled. 

25. And there 
shall be signs in 
the sun, and in the 
moon, and in the 
stars, and upon the 
earth distress of 
nations with per- 
plexity, the sea and 
the waves roaring; 

26. Men's hearts 
failing them for 
fear, and for look- 
ing after those 
things which are 
coming on the 
earth ; for the 
powers of heaven 
shall be shaken. 

27. And then 
shall they see the 
Son of Man com- 
ing in a cloud with 
power and great 
glory. 



27. And the^i 
shall he send his 
angels, and shall 
gather together his 



238 



Matth. xxiv. 
they shall gather 
together his elect 
from the four 
winds, from one 
end of heaven to 
the other. 



52. Now learn 
a parable of the 
fig tree. When 
his branch is yet 
tender, and put- 
teth forth leaves, 
ye lenow that sum- 
mer is nigh. 

33. So likewise 
ye, when ye shall 
see all thesethings, 
know that it is 
near, even at the 
doors. 



34. Verily I say 
unto you this ge- 
neration shall not 
pass, till all these 
things be fulfilled. 

35. Heaven and 
earth shall pass 
away ; but my 
words shall not 
pass away. 



Mark, xiii. 
elect from the four 
winds,from the ut- 
termost part of the 
earth to the utter- 
most part of hea- 
ven. 



Luke, xxi. 



28. Now learn 
a parable of the 
fig tree. When 
her branch is yet 
tender and putteth 
forth leaves, ye 
know that summer 
is near. 

29. So ye, in 
like manner, when 
ye shall see these 
things come to 
pass, know that it 
is nigh, even at the 
doors. 



30. Verily I say 
unto you. that this 
generation shall 
not pass, till all 
these things be 
done. 

31. Heaven and 
earth shall pass 
away ; but my 
words shall not 
pass away. 



28. And when 
these things begin 
to come to pass, 
then look up and 
lift up your heads; 
for your redemp- 
tion draweth nigh. 
29. Andhe spake 
to them a parable. 
Behold the fig tree 
and all the trees. 

30. When they 
now shoot forth, 
ye see and know 
of your own selves 
that summer is now 
nigh at hand. 

31. So likewise 
ye, when ye see 
these things come 
to pass ; know ye 
that the kingdom 
of God is nigh at 
hand. 

32. Verily I say 
unto you, this ge- 
neration shall not 
pass away, till all 
be fulfilled. 

33. Heaven and 
earth shall pass 
away ; but my 
words shall not 
pass away. 



239 

Mr. Faber, having stated that the dis- 
ciples " silently followed" our Saviour, 
" wrapped in solemn musings on the awe- 
" ful denunciation which they had just 
" heard," and " eagerly requested a 
" farther explanation of the alarming 
" words," delivers his opinion concern- 
ing the whole collective question pro- 
posed by them : Tell us when shall these 
things be ; and what shall be the sign when 
all these things shall be fulfilled ; and what 
shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the 
end of the world ? in the following man- 
ner : that " the preceding context seems 
" imperiously to require that we should 
" refer the whole question to our Lord's 
" assertion relative to the utter dilapid- 
" ation of the temple." Assuming far- 
ther, that the disciples intended, by the 
concluding part of the question, to en- 
quire when the end of the world and the 
final judgement should take place ; he 
states that they naturally were led to 
subjoin that enquiry by their belief, a 
belief which he attributes principally to 
misapprehension of some of the prophe- 
cies of the Old Testament, that the 






240 

temple would continue so long as this 
should endure.* 

On this statement it may be, in the 
first place, observed, that, if the disciples 
believed that the destruction of the 
temple and the end of the world were to 
be synchronical events; the second part of 
their enquiry, interpreted as Mr. Faber 
interprets it, must have been superfluous. 
The answer which they should receive to 
the question, When shall the temple be 
thrown down, would equally inform them 
when the world should end. In the next 
place, how is it that they could consider 
our Lord's declaration, that the temple 
was to be destroyed as an " aweful denun- 
ciation and alarming words ?" It was, 
according to Mr. Faber's exposition of 
their views, merely a self-evident truism ; 
namely, that when the earth should be 
destroyed, the temple also would be over- 
thrown. If this declaration could convey 
to the disciples any new sensation ; it could 
not be a feeling of surprise, or of alarm. It 
must rather have been a feeling of satisfac- 
tion, resulting from their Master's con- 

* Dissert, vol. iii. p. 159. 161—163. 



241 

tirmation of the truth, of which they al- 
ready were convinced, that so long as the 
earth should last, the temple likewise 
should remain. 

It seems plain, therefore, that the mean- 
ing of the disciples, in the latter part of 
the collective question, was not to enquire 
respecting the final Day of Judgement, 
but respecting some other future event. 
It seems equally plain that the event 
contemplated in the enquiry, was the 
establishment of the earthly kingdom of 
the Messiah. And this interpretation is 
thoroughly in harmony with the preced- 
ing context. Nothing could be more 
natural than that the disciples, on being 
unexpectedly informed of the impending 
destruction of the temple, should ask not 
only when that destruction should come 
to pass; but still farther, when their Lord 
would reveal himself in his kingdom, and 
re-establish the glory of his people Israel, 
of the city of Jerusalem, and, as they 
probably would infer, of the temple itself. 

The darkening then of the sun, and of 
the moon, and the shaking of the powers 
of Heaven, in the parallel passages which 

M 






242 

have been quoted (Matth. xxfv. 29. Mark, 
xiii. 24, 25. Luke, xxi. 25, 26.) appa- 
rently must receive one of the following 
interpretations. 

I. They must be signs antecedent to 
the siege of Jerusalem ; in other words, 
they must form a renewed statement of 
the signs already specified, Matth. xxiv. 
7, 8. Mark, xiii. 7, 8. Luke, xxi. 9. 11. 

II. Or they must be signs denoting the 
siege and capture of the city, and the 
subversion of the Jewish government and 
polity. 

III. Or they must be signs announcing 
the near approach of such events upon 
earth, posterior to the destruction of Je- 
rusalem, but previous to the final Day of 
Judgement, as should constitute the in- 
tended coming of the Son of Man, and 
the end of the then existing dispensation. 

Against the first of these interpret- 
ations several objections may be adduced. 

1. The latter passages would be mere 
repetition of the former. 

2. The signs in the latter passages are 
expressly declared to be subsequent to 
the tribulation mentioned Matth. xxiv. 29. 



243 

Mark,xiii. 24.; which tribulation includes 
the siege and capture of the city. The 
signs in the former passages precede the 
siege. 

3. The signs in the former passages are 
not to be speedily followed by the event 
which they portend. They all are the be- 
ginning of sorrows ; but the end is not yet % 
is not by and by. Matth. xxiv. 6. 8. Mark, 
xiii. 7- 8. Luke, xxi. 9- The signs in the 
latter passages are speedily to be followed 
by their corresponding event. 

4. The event announced by the for- 
mer signs consists of sorrows. The event 
announced by the latter signs is of a joy- 
ful character. Lift up your heads : know 
that your redemption draweth nigh, that 
the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. 

The second interpretation has to en- 
counter the following arguments. 

1. The darkening and the fall of the 
celestial luminaries, and the shaking of 
the powers of Heaven, are emblems em- 
ployed in other parts of Scripture to sig- 
nify the overthrow of governments and 
polities j and, therefore, do not appear 
m 2 



244 

applicable simply to the siege and capture 
of Jerusalem. 

2. Neither are they, hi the latter pas- 
sages under consideration, identical with 
the subversion of the Jewish government 
and polity. They are termed by St. 
Luke signs in the sun, and in the moon, 
and in the stars (xxi. 25.). They are, 
therefore, to be understood, not as the 
main event (whether the fall of the Jew- 
ish polity or not,) intended by our Lord, 
but as preparatory prognostics of the 
main event intended by Him, whatever 
it may be : in the same manner, as the 
great signs from Heaven (Luke xxi. 11.) 
are preparatory prognostics of the main 
events there intended, the destruction of 
Jerusalem, and not that event itself. Ac- 
cordingly, the other circumstances enu- 
merated (25, 26.) as accompanying the 
signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in 
the stars (25.) are undeniably preparatory 
to subsequent events; " looking after 
" those things which are coming on the 
*' earth/' 

3. The subsequent events, Matth. xxiv. 
SO, 31. Mark, xiii. 26, 27. Luke, xxi. 27. 



245 

do not seem to have been verified, or in 
any adequate degree, if at all, represent- 
ed, by any consequences which ensued 
on the destruction of Jerusalem and the 
subversion of the Jewish polity. 

4. The second of the objections ad- 
vanced against the first interpretation, 
applies also to the interpretation now 
before us. 

5. These signs appear, Luke, xxi. 24, 
25., to be subsequent, not only to the 
destruction of Jerusalem, and to the con- 
temporaneous abolition of the Jewish 
polity j but also to the succeeding capti- 
vity and dispersion of the Jews, until the 
times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. 

A comparison of the parallel passages, 
Matth. xxiv. 29. Mark, xiii. 24. with 
Luke, xxi. 24, 25, will at once show that 
by those days of tribulation, the two for- 
mer Evangelists intended, equally with St. 
Luke, the period of Jewish tribulation 
extending from the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem to the restoration of Israel, when the 
times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. 
For in all the three Evangelists the close 
of the intended period is with equal dis- 
M 3 



246 

tinctness marked by the commencement 
of the signs in the sun, and in the moon, 
and in the stars. 

6. The expressions, All these things, 
Matth. xxiv. 33. ; These things, Mark, 
xiii. 29. ; and These things, Luke, Xxi. 
28. 31. plainly denote certain, and the 
same, circumstances which have been 
antecedently stated by the three Evan- 
gelists, and are here specified by them as 
introductory to the same event, whatever 
it may be. By St. Matthew and St. 
Mark that intended event is not named, 
but is left as obviously to be understood 
by the disciples from their own question, 
$ and from the prophetic reply of our 
Lord j and in our version is designated 
by the emphatical term, It. i7* is near; 
It is nigh, even at the doors." By St. 
Luke, (28.) this event is specifically de- 
nominated your redemption ; and also, 
(31.) the kingdom of God. The destruc- 

* Bishop Horsley (Sermons vol. i, p. 18.) states 
the true rendering to be He (the Son of Man) is 
»ear. This rendering equally accords with the ex- 
planation given hy St. Luke. 



247 

lion of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish po- 
lity, certainly could not be termed the 
redemption of the disciples, viewed in 
their national character as Jews. As 
little could it be deemed their redemption 
in their religious character as Christians. 
For, if Jewish persecution was thus 
quelled, the far more tremendous yoke of 
Pagan persecution remained. And as 
little, therefore, could it be accounted the 
establishment of the kingdom of God. 

The discussion, which has been pursued 
respecting the first and the second inter- 
pretation, has evinced, that neither the 
one nor the other can be maintained. 
And thus it has established the truth of the 
third, that the signs enumerated, Matth # 
24. 29. Mark, xiii. 24, 25. Luke, xxi. 25* 
26. were to announce the near approach 
of such events upon earth, posterior to the 
destruction of Jerusalem, but previous to 
the final Day of Judgement, as should 
constitute the intended coming of the Son 
of Man, and the end of the then existing 
dispensation. It has also smoothed the 
way for discovering what the intended 
event or events may be. 
m 4 



>A 



248 

When the disciples, astounded and 
dismayed at their Lord's declaration, 
that the temple should be utterly de- 
stroyed, a declaration which they per- 
ceived to imply an event far different 
from a contemporaneous destruction of 
the temple with that of the earth itself, 
proposed their question ; they spoke 
under the full influence of their, national 
feelings as Jews. They felt and spoke as 
men descended from the stock of Abra- 
ham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and heirs 
of the promises made of God to their 
fathers, zealous for the honour of their 
country, and for the triumphant manifest- 
ation of the Messiah, when he should 
restore the kingdom of Israel. The in- 
ference is direct, that Christ, in his reply 
to their enquiry, addressed them as men 
of Israel. Hence he announced to them 
the signs which should immediately pre- 
cede their " redemption," their national 
deliverance, when the times of the Gen- 
tiles should be fulfilled, from the enslav- 
ing domination of every foreign master ; 
and their establishment in perpetual pre- 



249 

eminence, peace, and prosperity, under 
the restored government of the House of 
David, This glorious event our Lord 
conjoins with another, the complete dis- 
play and consolidation of the " kingdom 
of God" upon earth. When the redemp- 
tion of Israel should be " near, nigh at 
" hand, even at the doors ;" so also should 
be " the kingdom of God." From other 
parts of the prophetic Scriptures we learn, 
that the restoration of the twelve tribes 
to their native land will be accompanied 
by their conversion to the Gospel. God 
will pour upon the House of David and 
upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit 
of grace and of supplications. And they 
shall look on Him whom they pierced : and 
they shall mourn for Him, shall mourn for 
the sins of their fathers in crucifying Him, 
and for their own sin in their continued 
rejection of him, as one that mournethfor 
his only son ; and shall be in bitterness for 
Him, as one that is in bitterness for his 
first-born.* From the same sources we 
know that the conversion of Israel shall 

* Zechariah, xiL 10. 
M 5 



1 



250 

immediately precede, and shall be made 
signally instrumental to effect, the entire 
conversion of all the nations of the hea- 
then.* Thus the Lord and His Christ 
shall take to them their great power, and 
shall reign ; and all the kingdoms of this 
world shall become the kingdoms of oar 
Lord and of His Christ, and he shall reign 
for ever and ever.f 

Those expositors who, from the days 
of Mede, have found themselves con- 
strained to apply the parallel passages 
which have now been examined to times 
long subsequent to the destruction of Je- 
rusalem, have also agreed in uniformly 
feeling the difficulty presented by Mat- 
thew, xxiv. 34. and by the corresponding 
verses of Mark and Luke : Verily I say 
unto you, this generation shall not pass 
away, till all these things be fulfilled. The 
solution proposed by Mede is, that ysvsa, 
the word rendered generation, is to be 
regarded as signifying, not a contempo- 
raneous body of living individuals, but a 
xace of men, a particular people continued 

* Rom. xi. 11. 15. f Hev - xi - *$• 17. 



251 

in succession ; and that the consequent 
meaning of the passage is, that the race 
of Israel shall not become extinct until 
their restoration and conversion shall have 
taken place. This explanation, which, if 
the term ysvea be allowed to be capable 
of the signification attributed to it by 
Mede, renders the words of our Savi- 
our a mere repetition, is generally, and, 
as it should seem, rightly deemed un- 
satisfactory. Two other solutions have 
recently been suggested : one of them by 
an unknown writer in a very respectable 
periodical publication* ; the other con- 
jointly by Mr. Faber and Mr. Cuning- 
hamet, as the result of their combined 
deliberations. The first turns on the ac- 
cent properly to be affixed to the pro- 
noun olvtt) agreeing with yevsa. If the 
word be rightly accented, aSr^, it is ac- 
curately rendered this. If it be accented 
air^, it should be translated that; and 
would necessarily denote that generation 

* Christian Observer, 1815. p. 5 — 7. 
f Faber's Dissertation, vol. iii. p. 219. &c Cnn- 
inghame's Dissertation, second edition, p. 242. &&, 
M 6 



252 

which should witness the signs in the sun, 
and the moon, and the stars. The argu- 
ment is, that in the best manuscripts, 
written in capital letters, no accents are 
affixed; and that it is, therefore, lawful to 
suppose that the proper mode of writing 
the word in the present passage may be 
airvj. The second interpretation depends 
on the import of the verb yevtfai, em- 
ployed by the three Evangelists; and ren- 
dered, in our translation of the verse, in 
St. Mark, be done, in St. Matthew, and 
in St. Luke, be fulfilled. Mr. Faber and 
Mr. Cuninghame, in explaining the ex- 
pression scog av 7raula. raulu yevrflai, apply 
" all these things" to the whole of our 
Lord's prophecy in the present chapters; 
and are of opinion, that the most proper 
signification of the verb yLvo^ai is not 
that of complete accomplishment, but of 
commencement of action running into sub- 
sequent continuance. On these grounds 
they interpret the passage as simply de- 
claring, that the prophetic series of events 
which had been detailed should begin to 
be fulfilled during the life of the then 
existing generation. Without entering 

7 



253 

into a discussion respecting these expos- 
itions, and without requiring any alter- 
ration in our version, a third solution may 
be proposed. Our Lord, in announcing to 
his disciples that, as surely as the bursting 
foliage of the fig-tree proclaims the near 
approach of summer, the appearance of 
the signs in the sun, and moon, and stars, 
would reveal the near approach, both of 
the redemption of Israel, and of the king- 
dom of God, says ; " When ye see all 
these things, know that it is at the 
doors." Now it is manifest, that, in 
using the words "ye see" it was not his 
intention to imply, that the individuals 
whom he was addressing, or any one of 
their number, or any one of their con- 
temporaries on earth, would survive to 
behold those signs. As St. Paul, when 
speaking of that very far future gener- 
ation of mankind which should constitute 
the living inhabitants of the earth at the 
arrival of the Day of Judgement, says, in 
general terms ; " Then we which are 
■*« alive, and remain*, shall be caught 

* 1 The*s. iv. 17. and see 2 Thess. ii. 1— 3. 



2.54 

" up to meet the Lord in the air :" so 
our Lord, by the expression, " when ye 
see all these things," plainly intends the 
generation of Israelites which should be 
dwellers upon earth at the distant pe- 
riod, when those predicted signs should 
be displayed. When, therefore, he adds, 
in the succeeding verse, " This gener- 
ation shall not pass away till all these 
things be fulfilled ;" it seems evident that 
by the words, this generation, he does not 
intend the generation which he was ad- 
dressing, but the generation of which he 
was speaking : the generation which 
should be living at the time when the 
signs should be displayed, the generation 
which, as He solemnly averred, should 
also behold their accomplishment in the 
predicted events. 

The remainder of these three prophetic 
chapters, after a declaration from our 
Lord, recorded in two of them, that the 
precise time when the day of which he 
spoke should arrive, continued unknown 
to any being but the Father, is occupied 
by warnings as to the suddenness and un- 
expectedness of his coming ; and by ex- 



255 

hortation enforced by reference to the 
conduct of a householder aware of the 
designs of a robber, and by various other 
similitudes, to watchfulness and prepar- 
ation respecting it. He apprises us, that 
all they that dwell on the face of the whole 
earth shall be overtaken and surprised by 
it, as a wild animal is arrested by a snare : 
that it shall find them no less indifferent, 
thoughtless, and incredulous, with regard 
to its approach, no less absorbed in the 
gratifications, interests, and employments 
of ordinary life, than the inhabitants of 
the old world were at the commence- 
ment of the deluge. But, amidst this 
general worldliness and insensibility the 
appearance of the glorified Messiah 
entering into his kingdom shall at once 
be made known by indubitable mani- 
festations throughout the earth. As 
the lightning that Ughteneth out of the 
one part under heaven, shineth unto 
the other fart under heaven ; so shall 
also the Son of Man be in his day* Nor 
yet shall the overwhelming surprise be 
altogether universal. The admonitions 

* Luke, xvii. 24-. So also Matth. xxiv. 27. And 
see Bp. Horsley's Sermons, rol.i. p. 32. 



256 

of our Lord, through the medium of his 
apostles, to his followers in the latter 
days shall not have been wholly vain. In 
the midst of general torpor, security, 
worldly-mindedness, and unbelief, the 
wise, the faithful, and devoutly considerate, 
shall understand* beforehand, from the 
study of the prophecies, the signs of the 
times : and shall thus be prepared for the 
predicted and approaching event. 

From the words of our Lord, (Luke, 
xxi. 28. 31.) it is evident, that the re- 
demption of Israel and the coming of the 
kingdom of God will be synchronical. 
In Rev. xi. 15 — 19., on the sounding of 
the seventh trumpet, joyful acclamations 
in heaven announce that the Lord and 
his Christ are about to establish their 
universal kingdom over the earth. In 
Rev. xvi. 15., after the pouring out of the 
sixth vial, and apparently towards the 
close of the events comprised under it, 
Christ pointedly interrupts the prophetic 
narrative in order to intimate that his ap- 
pearance is nigh at hand. In Rev. xix. 
21., we behold him, after the effusion of 
the seventh vial, (xvi. 17.) going forth in 
* Daniel ; xii. 10. 



£57 

undisguised majesty at the head of the 
armies of heaven, for the utter destruc- 
tion of the Roman wild beast, and of the 
kings of the earth and their armies at Ar- 
mageddon, where the " spirits of Devils" 
had assembled them " to the battle of 
that great day of God Almighty." Now 
it is worthy of observation, that the em- 
phatical and studiously introduced de- 
claration of our Lord, Rev. xvi. 15., in 
respect of the suddenness and unexpect- 
edness of the event which it announces, 
in the illustrative comparison employed, 
and in the duty of watchful preparation 
enjoined, bears the closest resemblance 
to his former declarations referring to the 
redemption of the twelve tribes in con- 
junction with the establishment of the 
kingdom of God. Behold, I come as a 
thief: blessed is he that watcheth and 
keepeth his garments, lest he zvalk naked 
and they see his shame. Thus, by every 
circumstance we are instructed that the 
restoration of the twelve tribes to their 
own land, the destruction of the Roman 
wild beast and his adherents, and of that 
man of sin, whom the Lord shall destroy 



258 

with the brightness of his coming *, and 
the establishment of the universal king- 
dom of God and of his Christ upon earth, 
are events which are all to be accom- 
plished under the pouring forth of the 
seventh vial. 

* 2 Thess. ii\ 8. 



259 



ESSAY VII. 

ON THE SEVENTH HEAD OF THE ROMAN 
WILD BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE J AND 
ON THE EIGHTH KING, OR FORM OF GO- 
VERNMENT. 



JliVERY accession of insightinto the mean- 
ing of any detached portion of prophecy, 
possesses a value beyond the simple 
amount of the knowledge attained. For it 
is also a step which facilitates the general 
comprehension of the prophetic Scrip- 
tures. The importance of that portion 
of prophecy on which the present essay 
professes to treat, is universally acknow- 
ledged } and may justly excite additional 
endeavours to investigate the purport of 
the prediction. 

The opinions which, with the grounds 
on which they rest, will now be sub- 



260 

mittecl to the enquirer into the prophecies, 
will be stated in the form of successive 
propositions. Their validity, and their 
mutual connexion, will thus be brought 
before him in the most distinct manner 
for consideration. 

Proposition I. 

The seven-headed wild beast (&>j^/ov), 
whose exploits and final destruction are 
recorded in Chap. xi. xiii. xvi. xvii. and 
xix. of the Apocalypse, is the Western 
Roman Empire. 

For he is ten-horned, and is closely and 
permanently connected both with Rome, 
the city of seven hills, which had no con- 
nection with the Eastern Empire after 
the accession of Charlemagne j and also 
is equally united with the two-horned or 
ecclesiastical wild beast, with whom the 
Eastern Empire was perpetually and ra- 
dically at variance. And St. John, be- 
fore he enters on the subject of the seven- 
headed wild beast, has previously disposed 
of the history of the Eastern Empire # ; 
and has included the total extinction of 

* Rev. ix. 



261 

that empire. And farther, the account 
of the extinction of the idolatrous Eastern 
empire having been closed by a refer- 
ence * to " the rest of the men/' obvi- 
ously the remaining part, namely, the 
Western part, of the Roman Empire, who 
did not take warning from that tremend- 
ous judgement, but persisted in their 
iniquities and their idolatry : St. John, 
by a very solemn vision f, introductory 
to a new series of predictions, is imme- 
diately commanded to prophesy to many 
peoples, and nations, and tongues, and 
kings. These peoples, and nations, and 
tongues, and kings, it is reasonable to 
conclude to be the same kingdoms, " the 
" rest of the men," to whom the pre- 
ceding reference pertained. Accordingly, 
the prophecy instantly begins t and stead- 
ily pursues the history of the idolatrous 
wild beast, and of his confederate kings 
typified by his ten horns, and of his as- 
sociate, the two-horned ecclesiastical wild 
beast ; and of their joint persecution of 

* Rev. ix. 20, 21. f Rev. ix. 1—11. 

| Rev. xi. 1., and the succeeding chapters. 



262 

the saints of the Most High during twelve 
hundred and sixty years. 

Therefore the heads of the wild beast 
are heads of the Western Empire : and 
the heads of the Eastern Empire are ir- 
relevant, except when also heads of the 
Western Empire. And, consequently, 
the head wounded apparently to death * 
was a head of the Western Empire. 

Proposition II. 
The wounded head was not slain, or 
lopped qffl\ It simply received a wound 
apparently mortal, " as it were unto 
" death," " wg ecQayfJLevrip eig ibavcLTov j" 
and also, contrary to the fact when for- 
mer heads fell, apparently mortal to the 
wild beast himself — " his deadly wound." 

* Rev. xiii. 3. 

4- As Mr. Faber affirms, Dissertation on the Pro- 
phecies, vol. iii. 28. 41. 44., &c. The writer will 
be constrained to express his dissent in certain other 
points also from the opinion of Mr. Faber, and like- 
wise from some of the views of Mr. Cuninghame ; 
and is, therefore, solicitous to state his sincere and 
high respect for each of those interpreters of pro- 
phecy, and his sense of the light which they have 
been enabled to throw on very important subjects. 



263 

But ultimately the wild beast revived, 
and in prodigious strength, to the aston- 
ishment and the terror of the world ; and 
commenced a prosperous reign of twelve 
hundred and sixty years. # And as the 
deadly w r ound of the wild beast was in 
his head, and the wound was healed ; the 
identical head recovered. 

Proposition III. 
The wild beast is represented as pros- 
pering continuously throughout the twelve 
hundred and sixty years. Therefore he 
cannot now be lying deadt, unless the 
twelve hundred and sixty years are al- 
ready ended; or are not yet begun. 

Proposition IV. 
The witnesses are slain % within the 
twelve hundred and sixty years. For 
otherwise the wild beast would prosper 
at least three additional years and a half: 
and would also have his grand triumph 
after the twelve hundred and sixty years 

* Rev. xiii. 3—5. 12. 

f As Mr. Faber states him to be since the de- 
position of Napoleon, Dissert, iii. 44., &c — This 
opinion is subsequently considered under Prop. xxL 

X Rev. xi. 



264 

were past, and while the vials of judge- 
ment were pouring out upon him their 
destructive contents. 

This conclusion is corroborated by the 
following circumstance : — That in the 
subsequent account of the proceedings of 
the wild beast during the period of the 
seven vials, we read of his struggles and 
exertions to oppose the true followers of 
the gospel, and of his ruin and destruc- 
tion in the attempt ; but not the slightest 
intimation is given of any temporary tri- 
umph obtained by him over the servants 
of God. 

Proposition V. 
The witnesses are slain by the wild 
beast under his eighth form of govern- 
ment, succeeding a short-lived seventh 
form ; and after he has ascended from 
the abyss.* Therefore the wild beast 
must be in his eighth form, within the 
twelve hundred and sixty years. 

Proposition VI. 
The ascent of the wild beast from the 
abyss signifies his revival, in the charac- 

* Rev. xi. 7. xvii. 8, 11. 



265 

ter of an agent of Satan, from the condi- 
tion of a defunct empire. 

Mr. Faber # maintains, that the Abyss, 
Ajbucrcrog, means the sea ; and affirms the 
ascent of the wild beast from the Abyss 
to be simply the same event as his rising 
out of the sea, xiii. 1. To this opinion 
Mr. Cuninghame t also inclines. The 
only arguments advanced by these emi- 
nent expositors in support of it are, that 
the Septuagint version frequently uses 
Afiua-o-os to signify, like the Hebrew Qinn 
the sea ; and that classical authors em- 
ploy the cognate words fiixrcrog and &i>Qog 
to denote the ocean. The use, however, 
of a different term, Afiixrcrog, xvii. 8. 
and xi. 7- from that which is employed 
xiii. 1. QaTiCLcrcra, furnishes a presump- 
tion that a different idea is intended 
to be conveyed. And this presump- 
tion appears to be advanced into cer- 
tainty by the import of Afivcrcrog in other 
parts of the New Testament. The 
only other passages in which the word 
occurs are Luke, viii. 31., Rom. x. 7«> 
Rev. ix. I, 2. 11. and xx. 1. 3. In Luke, 

* Vol. iii. 99. f Dissertation, 2d Edit. p. 172. 

N 



266 

viii. 31. A&vcrtros manifestly signifies, not 
the sea, bat the place of penal confine- 
ment of evil spirits. In Rom. x. 7- it as 
plainly signifies, not the sea, but the ge- 
neral receptacle of the dead ; which place 
is likewise described emblematically by 
Isaiah (xiv. 9- — 15.), and by Ezekiel 
(xxxii. 18. to the end), as the regular 
abode of defunct Empires. In Rev. ix. 
1, 2. 11. and xx. 1. 3. the description of 
the Abyss is intirely opposite to the idea 
of a sea. In Ch. ix. the idea presented 
is that of a vast subterranean excavation 
pouring forth smoke, and giving birth to 
locusts (land animals), and communicat- 
ing with the surface of the earth by a 
passage like a well (fypsap rr^g Ajducrcrs) 
perforating the solid substance of the 
earth, and closed at the upper extremity 
by a door firmly locked down. In Ch. 
xx. the description, though not specifying 
the <ppsap, yet distinctly alluding to the 
door closing it at the surface of the earth, 
fully accords with Ch. ix. And in xx. 7. 
the Abyss is expressly termed, in precise 
agreement with Luke viii. 31. the "pri- 
son" of Satan. So, likewise, in Ch. ix., 



267 

the smoke (of corupt doctrine) issuing 
forth and darkening the air, the locusts 
with their venomous stings, and their 
king, the angel of the Abyss, concur to 
prove that the Abyss whence they arise 
through the $&mp is a region under the 
influence of Satan. And it is also a re- 
gion, as Rom. x. 7- illustrated by Isaiah, 
xiv. and Ezekiel, xxxii. evinces, which, 
in the language of prophecy, is regarded 
as the receptacle of defunct empires. 
Proposition VII. 

As the wild beast was reigning on 
earth, in the days of St. John, his subse- 
quent ascent from the Abyss necessarily 
implies an intermediate descent thither ; 
in other words, an intermediate, real, or 
apparent, political death. 

Proposition VIII. 

The wild beast commenced the twelve 
hundred and sixty years under his eighth 
form. 

For otherwise, either he must suffer 

within the twelve hundred and sixty 

years of his continuous prosperity some 

calamity so tremendous as apparently to 

n 2 






268 

annihilate him, and to hurl him from his 
triumphant state into the Abyss as a de- 
funct empire : or another seven-headed 
and ten-horned wild beast must arise 
within the same period from the Abyss, 
and thus constitute a second secular Ro- 
man wild beast contemporary with the 
first. Either supposition is irreconcilable 
with the tenor of prophecy. 

Hence, also, it is obvious, that the 
twelve hundred and sixty years, which 
could not commence before the revival 
of the wild beast, commenced at the time 
of his revival. 

Proposition IX. 

From the preceding propositions it 
follows, that the seventh head must have 
arisen and have run its brief course in the 
interval between St. John's time and the 
commencement of the twelve hundred 
and sixty years. 

Proposition X. 
As it is unquestionable, that the twelve 
hundred and sixty years, whatever opinion 
may be held respecting their termination, 



269 

commenced many centuries ago; history, 
by proving that the reigning form, ever 
since the revival of the Western Empire, 
has consisted of an imperial head con- 
joined with independent regal horns, 
ascertains that the eighth form of Go- 
vernment consists of this combination. 

Therefore the beginning of the twelve 
hundred and sixty years, the revival of 
the wild beast, and his return from the 
Abyss, and the healing of his wounded 
imperial head, and its incipient conjunc- 
tion with ten crowned horns as the eighth 
form, all took place together. 

Proposition XL 

The seventh head must be in some 
clear sense not the wild beast himself. 

For concerning the eighth form of go- 
vernment it is emphatically declared, that 
the beast that was and is not, even he is tha 
eighth # ; a declaration which appears 
pointedly to imply, that the preceding 
head was not the wild beast himself. 
The intended contrast must refer to the 
seventh head. For the first six heads 

* Rev. xvii. 11. 
N 3 



2v0 

were obviously the wild beast himself* : 
and whatever might be in that sense pre- 
dicated of any one of them, might equally 
be predicated of all the six. 

Proposition XII. 
It was decidedly to be expected, that 
the eighth form would not be merely a 
chronological revival of an antecedent 
head, as of the sixth head subsequently 
to the fall of the seventh ; for, otherwise, 
each of the successive revivals of the con- 
sular and of the dictatorial head must be 
numerically distinguished as a new form : 
but that it would be so modified in its 
revived reigning capacity, as to be to 
a certain extent distinct from its prior 
description, though not so different as to 
become an eighth head. 

Proposition XIII. 
Two heads may coexist, though not as 

* The term King is applied in prophecy to the 
wild beasts themselves, as well as to their emblema- 
tic heads and horns. " These great beasts, which are 
four, are four Kings" Daniel, vii. 17. " The ten 
horns are ten kings." Daniel, vii. 24- . " The seven 
heads are seven kings." " The ten horns are ten 
kings." Rev. xvii. 9, 10. 12. 



271 

dominant. The consular head was not 
meant, nor supposed, to be destroyed by 
the dominion of the dictatorial or of the 
decemviral head ; but remained for the 
time in privacy and abeyance. 

Thus, in full consistency with the ana- 
logy of prophecy, the imperial head, 
wounded, and in a state apparently of 
death, or of a condition past recovery, 
might exist during the short-lived domin- 
ation of the seventh head, though itself 
divested of dominion during the reign of 
the seventh head; and might recover from 
its wound and reign again, and either in its 
former state, or with some modification. 
Proposition XIV. 

The ten regal horns, as they are de- 
scribed as reigning in the same period, 
all belong to one head only at any one 
time. And farther ; they belong to one 
head only of the seven heads. 

For did they belong to two or more 
heads successively, the wild beast, since 
all the seven heads were shown to St. 
John at once, would have appeared with 
twenty, or more, horns. Otherwise, a 
head really possessing horns would be re- 
n 4 



272 

presented as not possessing any ; in direct 
opposition to the fact as it would be dis- 
played in the future event. 

Proposition XV. 

The ten horns go into destruction with 
the wild beast at Armageddon. # So, also, 
Daniel, ii. 34. 41, 42. 44. the Stone smites 
the image on the ten toes ; a symbol evi- 
dently corresponding with the ten horns, 
of the wild beast. 

Therefore, hence also it follows, that, 
as already has been shown in Prop. X. the 
ten horns belong to the eighth Jbnn, and 
to the revived imperial head. 

Proposition XVI. 

The ten horns may belong to the im- 
perial head, and exclusively, and yet may 
not have arisen until about the time of 
its revival. 

So the four horns (Daniel, viii. 8.) of 
the Grecian wild beast did not arise on 
his head, until it had long been in exist- 
ence and reigning. 

Proposition XVII. 
The ten horns grow on the same head 

* Rev. xvii. 12. 14. — xix. 19, 20. 



with the little horn, Daniel, vii. 7, 8, II* 
26. For he rises among them ; roots up 
three of them, and occupies the place of 
the three ; and perishes with the wild 
beast and his confederate kings. 

It accordingly is plain from history that 
the little horn, who is the ecclesiastical 
wild beast, or false prophet, of the Apo- 
calypse, has flourished and reigned during 
the domination of the revived imperial 
head conjoined with the ten secular regal 
horns. 

Proposition XVIII. 

Though the reign of the ten regal 
horns is limited, both as to its commence- 
ment and as to its continuance, to the pe- 
riod of the revived wild beast ; we are 
not necessarily to conclude, that every 
one of them began to reign in conjunc- 
tion with him, and in subserviency to him, 
from the moment of the commencement 
of the twelve hundred and sixty years; 
nor that every one of them was to con- 
tinue in subserviency to him throughout 
that period, nor to be found in subser- 
viency to him at the time of its termin- 
ation* 

N 5 



274 

Concerning the ten regal horns, the pro- 
phecy states, that they receive power as 
kings " one hour with the beast" +~[jAav 
wpau [xsra rs Sypis — that they have one 
mind (juow yveofj^v e%siri)i and shall give 
(PioL&$a)(T8ari 9 shall transfer), their power 
and strength " unto the beast — for God 
has put it in their hearts to fulfil his will, 
and to agree, (7roir)arai \xiav yno^rp'), and 
give their kingdom unto the beast until 
the words of God shall be fulfilled." * 
The expression (jliqlv copav denotes not 
commencement, but duration, of time : 
and might be better translated " during 
one season/' or c< during one and the 
same season. " It does not, however, 
appear necessarily, nor in point of fact, 
to imply, that the reign of all the ten re- 
gal horns and the domination of the re- 
vived wild beast exactly synchronise 
from their beginnings to their termin- 
ations. For, first, the declaration that 
the horns shall give (shall transfer) their 
pow r er and strength to the beast, namely, 
the revived wild beast, indicates, that as 
to some of them at least he exists ante- 
* Rev. xvii. 11 — 17- 



275 

cedently ; and in such a state of vigour 
as to be thoroughly capable of receiving 
the transfer from them. Secondly, The 
English horn has ceased to belong to the 
wild beast ever since the establishment of 
the reformation in this island. And if 
the African province of the Western Em- 
pire, re-conquered, A.D. 533, by Jus- 
tinian, be one of the ten horns ; it has 
ceased to belong to the wild beast ever 
since it was subjugated by the Saracens 
towards the end of the seventh century. 
Thirdly, The preceding remark shows, by 
historical proof, that the expression, p„jay 
yvwfAYiv, does not imply uniform coinci- 
dence of submission in all the ten horns 
to the revived wild beast throughout the 
twelve hundred and sixty years: and thus 
affords the additional support of analogy 
to the conclusion, that the kindred phrase, 
jAictv copctv, does not involve uniform co- 
incidence of duration as horns in all the 
ten with the wild beast throughout that 
period. Fourthly, The denomination of 
ten horns is employed as a general ex- 
pression concerning them, notwithstand- 
ing occasional or permanent variations in 
n 6 



276 

their number, as by the absorption of three 
of them by the Pope as a temporal horn, or 
by other political changes. The import, 
then, of the terms, [jliocu to^av [xsra rs 
6r)c>i8, does not apparently imply more 
than that, immediately on the revival of 
the wild beast, one or more of the regal 
horns should become closely connected 
with him, and subservient to him ; that 
the others, at no long intervals, should 
successively enter into the same con- 
nexion and subserviency ; and that, speak- 
ing generally, nearly all of them should 
continue in that connexion and subser- 
viency until the expiration of his trium- 
phant reign of twelve hundred and sixty- 
years, and subsequently until his destruc- 
tion at Armageddon. 

The predicted subserviency of the re- 
gal horns to the wild beast might be 
either in matters purely secular, or in 
matters pointing directly at the interests 
of true religion. The tenor of the pro- 
phecy illustrated by history as the inter- 
preter of the prophecy shows, that, as to 
matters purely secular, little, if any thing, 
more than an acknowledgment by the 



277 

regal horns of precedence in rank in the 
revived imperial head, was intended : and 
that the subserviency was to be mainly- 
rendered to the wild beast in his essential 
character as such ; namely, that of art 
idolatrous and persecuting enemy of the 
true church of Christ. Hence, when once 
the little horn grew on the revived im- 
perial head, was confederate, and, as it 
were, practically identified with the wild 
beast, " exercised all the power of the 
" first beast before him, and caused the 
" earth, and them that dwell therein, to 
" worship the first beast whose deadly 
" wound was healed*:" the subjection 
of a regal horn to the little horn became 
virtual subjection to the wild beast also. 

The practical identification is so strong 
and determinate, that, while St. John re- 
presents the ten-horned wild beast as blas- 
pheming God and making war upon the 
saints during the twelve hundred and 
sixty years, Daniel (vii. 8. 11. 25.) de- 
scribes the saints as delivered for that 
period into the hands of the little horn j 
and pronounces that it was " because of 
* Rev, xiii. 12. 



278 

" the voice of the great words which the 
" (little) horn spake," that the ten- 
horned wild beast " was slain, and his 
" body destroyed, and given to the burn- 
" ing flame." 

Proposition XIX. 

The Gothic domination in Italy con- 
stituted the seventh head. 

As the seventh head succeeds to the 
sixth, or imperial, head reigning when 
the apostle wrote the prophecy; and 
finishes its course on the commencement 
of the eighth form by the, revival of the 
wounded head, and its conjunction with 
the regal horns at the beginning of the 
twelve hundred and sixty years ; there 
seem to be only two opinions respecting 
the head intended in prophecy as the 
seventh, which fall within the prescribed 
limitations. 

One of these opinions is that which is 
maintained by Mr. Cuninghame in the 
second edition of his work.* He alleges 
that there were two distinct and succes- 
sive imperial heads, the Pagan and the 

* Dissert, p. 164. 



279 

Christian ; that the sixth, or Pagan im- 
perial head, commenced with Augustus, 
and fell at the conversion of Constantine, 
A.D. 313..; that it was instantly suc- 
ceeded by the seventh, or Christian im- 
perial head, which continued till it re- 
ceived, A.D. 476., in the person of Au- 
gustulus, an apparently mortal wound 
from the sword of Odoacer; and that 
with the wild beast itself, it revived sub- 
stantially * under Justinian, A.D. 533, 
and completely, A.D. 800, in Charle- 
magne, and 'constituted, in conjunction 
with the ten regal horns, the eighth form* 

To this interpretation there seem to be 
insurmountable objections. 

1st, There appears to have been no 
real change of head, or form of govern- 
ment, (fict.tn'hsvg), on the conversion of 
Constantine. The sovereignty remained 
imperial ; and in the same person. The 

* Mr. Cuninghame's views require that he 
should consider the imperial head as completely 
restored, A.D. 533. ; since he regards Justinian as 
in that year competent authoritatively to deliver 
the saints into the hands of the little horn, 



280 

dynasty was not changed. The general 
laws continued unaltered. 

In all the former changes of heads, the 
change was an alteration in the title and 
form of civil government ; not a moral, 
but a political change. From analogy 
we may infer, that a similar change was to 
take place when the seventh head arose. 

2dly, The duration of the Christian 
emperorship from the conversion of Con- 
stantine to the deposition of Augustulus, 
about 163 years, does not accord with 
the description, IC a short space," oX/yov.* 
, The period amounts within eleven years 
to the average duration of all the preced- 
ing heads, six in number, according to 
Mr. Cuninghame. And it seems arbi- 
trary to assume, that the " short space" 
is to be understood in comparative allu- 
sion only to the succeeding eighth form ; 
which eighth form too is, according to 
Mr. Cuninghame's interpretation, a con- 
tinuation of the same seventh head. 

3dly, The name of blasphemy stands 
imprinted alike on all the heads.t But 

* Rev. xvii. 10. f Rev. xiii. 1. 



281 

it could not be the characteristic of a 
Christian imperial head. 

If it be replied, that Justinian, the 
seventh head on Mr. Cuninghame's in- 
terpretation, revived, became the patron 
of blasphemy A.D. 533, by formally de- 
livering the saints into the power of the 
little horn, and that the head thence- 
forward bore the brand of blasphemy j the 
answer will be found in the following ad- 
ditional objection. 

4thlt/ 9 If Constantine became a new 
head 9 by becoming the protector and es- 
tablisher of the true Christian Church 5 
on the same principle, Justinian, by es- 
tablishing the Antichristian Church A.D* 
533, and delivering the saints into the 
hand of the little horn, must either have 
become an entirely new and distinct 
eighth head, whereas there are but seven 
heads ; or must be regarded as the Pagan 
or sixth head restored, precisely as the 
members of the Church which he thus 
established are pronounced " Gentiles."* 
The supposed seventh head restored, he 
could not be. It is equally impossible 
* Rev. xi. 2. 



282 

for an Antichristian head to be a true 
Christian head, as for the Antichristian 
Church to be the true Church of Christ. 

The other opinion is, that the seventh 
head is the Gothic head, or the dominion 
of the Gothic conquerors in Italy : that 
it arose, A. D. 47 1>, in the person of 
Odoacer, on the subversion of the 
Western Empire, when the imperial or 
sixth head received an apparently mortal 
wound, and the wild beast himself, the 
Western Empire, seemed to be brought 
down to destruction, and his political ex- 
istence and his persecuting character to 
be terminating in one common death : 
that it was continued in the Gothic suc- 
cessors of Odoacer ; and that, after some 
years of decline, it fell A.D. 533, when 
Justinian both held an acknowledged 
imperial jurisdiction, and regained terri- 
torial possessions^ within the Western 
Empire. 

This opinion seems capable of being 
satisfactorily established. 

When Odoacer had defeated the forces 
of Augustulus, and had taken him pri- 
soner, " the submissive people of Italy 



283 

was prepared to obey without a murmur 
the authority which he should conde- 
scend to exercise as the Vicegerent of 

CD 

the Emperor of the West. But Odoacer 
had resolved to abolish that useless and 
expensive office, (namely, the Western 
Emperorship ;) and such is the weight of 
antique prejudice, that it required some 
boldness and penetration to discover the 
extreme facility of the enterprise. The 
unfortunate Augustulus was made the in- 
strument of his own disgrace ; he signi- 
fied his resignation to the senate ; and 
that assembly, in their last act of obedience 
to a Roman prince, still affected the spi- 
rit of freedom and the forms of the con- 
stitution." * In an epistle addressed by 
their unanimous decree to the Emperor 
Zeno, they " disclaim the necessity or 
even the wish of continuing any longer 
the imperial succession in Italy ; since, 
in their opinion, the majesty of a sole 
monarch is sufficient to pervade and pro- 
tect, at the same time, both the east and 
the west. In their own name, and in 
the name of the people, they consent 

* Gibbon ; 8vo. vj. 226 to 298, 



284 

that the seat of universal empire shall be 
transferred from Rome to Constantin- 
ople. The republic (they repeat that 
name without a blush) might safely con- 
fide in the military and civil virtues of 
Odoacer ; and they humbly request that 
the emperor would invest him with the 
title of Patrician, and the administration 
of the diocese of Italy." * Zeno assents. 
Zeno's " vanity was gratified by the title 
of sole emperor, and by the statues 
erected to his honour in the several quar- 
ters of Rome. He entertained a friendly, 
though ambiguous, correspondence with 
the Patrician Odoacer; and he gratefully 
accepted the imperial ensigns, the sacred 
ornaments of the throne and palace, 
which the barbarian was not unwilling to 
remove from the sight of the people." 
Thus the reign of Augustulus " was 
marked by the extinction of the Roman 
Empire in the west t j" and the reign of 
of the Goths instantly began. 

* Gibbon, 8vo. vi. 228. 

f Gibbon, 8vo. vi. 228. — " Sic quoque Hes- 
perium Romanae gentis imperium, quod septin- 
gesimo vigesimo tertio Urbis conditae anno primus 



285 

Odoacer, the first of the Gothic dy- 
nasty, is entitled to be considered as 
a head of the Roman wild beast. For he 
possessed Rome and Italy, the original 
and essential parts of the kingdom of the 
wild beast, and ruled them with uncon- 
trolled authority. If he acquiesced at 
first in an appearance of receiving autho- 
rity with the title of Patrician from 
Zeno, the eastern Emperor, and of no- 
minal dependence on him : he subse- 
quently claimed and exercised complete 
independence ; excluded the eastern Em- 
peror from every degree of power in 
Italy ; and vigorously defended himself, 
as an independent sovereign, against 
Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, whom 
the eastern Emperor employed about 
twelve years afterwards to recover Italy 
by force from the power of Odoacer. 

If it be said that, according to the pre- 
ceding statement, Odoacer usurped the 
kingdom of Italy from Zeno, for whom 

Augustorum Octavianus Augustus tenere ccepit, 
cum hoc Augustulo periit: Gothorum dehinc re- 
gibus Romam Italiamque tenentibus." Jornandes 
de Rebus Geticis. 



286 

it was to be understood that he was to 
govern it with the title of Patrician, and 
that, as being an usurper, he cannot be 
deemed a head: the reply is obvious. 
The prophecy, in describing the seven 
heads, manifestly looks simply to the 
fact of their possessing dominion, not to 
the mode by which they acquired it. 
Were not the military tribunes, as a 
head, and the emperors, as a head, suc- 
cessively usurpers on the lawful consular 
head ? Yet they are not the less recog- 
nized as heads. 

Suppose it to be objected that if Gdo- 
acer, by being independent master of 
Rome and its Italian territory, became 
the seventh head ; on the same grounds, 
the Pope must have been, since the down- 
fall of Napoleon, an eighth head, contrary 
to the prophecy. The argument may 
thus be met. Until the fall of Napoleon, 
the Pope confessedly was merely a horn. 
He is now nothing more. No fresh 
power or pre-eminence has been conced- 
ed to him by the other horns : nor has 
any been claimed by him. The fact is 
clear, that he is not acknowledged, and 



287 

that he has not advanced any claim con- 
sequent on Napoleon's fall to be acknow- 
ledged, as secular head of the Roman 
body. The horns are at present reigning 
in their several territories without any 
common political superior. Suppose the 
objector to reply, that the case was the 
same with Odoacer ; that he was not ac- 
knowledged, nor did he claim to be re- 
cognized, as a common superior by the 
other Gothic kings. It may justly be 
answered, that those kings did not then 
regard themselves as constituent parts of 
a Roman body, or as connected with it ; 
and that Odoacer's kingdom, Rome and 
Italy, constituted the whole body, in its 
then existing dimensions, of the Roman 
wild beast : but that now the regal horns 
are avowedly and most closely connected 
with Rome, though there be no longer a 
Roman Emperor, by religious ties and 
ecclesiastical subordination ; yet that no 
civil superiority in the Pope is admitted 
or claimed. 

Should it be alleged that Odoacer, if a 
head, was only the regal, or Jirst, head 
revived j and that he wanted the dis- 



288 

tinguishing mark of a new head, a pecu- 
liar official denomination : the reply is 
provided by history. First ; The ancient 
kings were denominated kings of Rome, 
or of the Romans. Odoacer, on the con- 
trary, and the circumstance is very re- 
markable, never assumed either of those 
titles, nor even the title of King of Italy. 
His confederates "saluted him with the 
title of king ; but he abstained, during 
his whole reign, from the use of the 
purple and diadem, lest he should offend 
those princes, whose subjects, by their 
accidental mixture, had formed the vic- 
torious army. He seems to have assumed 
the abstract title of a king, without ap- 
plying it to any particular nation or 
country." * Secondly ; Were a title of 
Roman derivation in Odoacer requisite, 
he had the title of Patrician. After he 
had deposed Augustulus, he received that 
title from Zeno : and whether he did or did 
not at first imply by it any dependent 
subjection to Zeno, the title would remain 
when he ruled in perfect independence* 

* Gibbon, vi. 226. and note. 



289 

Thirdly ; A Gothic regal head, consisting 
of foreign conquerors, may justly be 
deemed a different head from one of 
native kings. 

The other prophetic marks character- 
istic of the seventh head are severally 
found in the Gothic head. 

Thus, the Gothic head, commencing 
with Odoacer, and existing not later than 
A.D. 533, agrees with the prophetic 
mark of lasting only a short time. 

Again ; the seventh head was not to 
be the wild beast himself. Observe the 
signal accuracy with which this prophetic 
mark is answered in the headship of Odo- 
acer and his successors. The Gothic 
sovereignty, as a head of the wild beast, 
was not, as in the case of all the other 
heads, sovereignty emanating from the 
wild beast, and exercised by the wild 
beast through the medium of his existing 
head. It was sovereignty over the wild 
beast. The wild beast, instead of reign- 
ing, was in chains; in slavery to the 
Gothic conqueror, who forcibly consti- 
tuted himself head of the wild beast, and 
ruled the captive at his pleasure. 
o 



290 

Farther ; the ten horns and the little 
horn have been shown to belong exclu- 
sively to the revived imperial head. 
Conformably with this prophetic appro- 
priation, they did not belong to the 
Gothic head. They had no connexion 
with it. The other Gothic kings, who 
had seized the rest of the provinces of the 
Western Empire, ruled them severally as 
independent sovereignties ; not as exist- 
ing parts of a Roman body, nor with any 
subordination or deference to Odoacer, 
or to any one of his successors, as pos- 
sessor of Rome. The little horn also w^s 
totally disjoined from Odoacer, and from 
his Gothic successors, and from their 
countrymen settled in Italy ; as, though 
converted to Christianity, they were 
avowed Arians, and were detested by the 
Catholic Church as heretics.* Odoacer 
himself, " like the rest of the barbarians, 
" had been instructed in the Arian 
" heresy t:** and all his successors were 
trained in it, and persevered in it. 

The reign of Theodoric, the imme- 
diate successor of Odoacer, lasted from 

* Gibbon, vi. 277, 278. f Ibid. 233. 



;. 



291 

A.D. 493 until A.D. 526. Zeno's " com- 
mission or grant" to Theodoric, on his 
expedition against Odoacer, was " ex- 
pressed with a prudent ambiguity which 
might be explained by the event ; and it 
was left doubtful whether the conqueror 
of Italy should reign as the lieutenant, 
the vassal, or the ally, of the Emperor of 
the East." * On the death of Odoacer, 
" the royalty of Theodoric was pro- 
claimed bv the Goths with the tardy, 
reluctant, and ambiguous consent of the 
Emperor of the East." t After some 
time, " the greatness of a servant (Theo- 
doric), who was named perfidious, because 
he was successful, awakened the jealousy 
of the Emperor Anastasius t i ,J and the 
war kindled between the two potentates 
ended to the advantage of Theodoric. 
" From a tender regard to the expiring 
prejudices of Rome, the barbarian (Theo- 
doric) declined the name, the purple, 
and the diadem of the emperors. But 
he assumed, under the hereditary title of 
king, the whole substance and plenitude 
of imperial prerogative. His addresses 

* Gibbon, vii. 11. f Ibid.vii. 16. % Ibid.vii,24. 

o 2 



292 

to the Eastern throne were respectful and 
ambiguous : he celebrated in pompous 
style the harmony of the two republics, 
applauded his own government as the 
perfect similitude of a sole and undi- 
vided empire, and claimed above the 
kings of the earth the same pre-eminence 
which he modestly allowed to the person 
or rank of Anastasius. The alliance of 
the East and West was annually declared 
by the unanimous choice of two consuls; 
but it should seem that the Italian can- 
didate, who was named by Theodoric, 
accepted a formal confirmation from the 
sovereign of Constantinople." — " The 
image of Theodoric is engraved on his 
coins." * Besides the whole of Italy and 
Sicily, Theodoric possessed Rhastia, Nor- 

* Gibbon, vii. 27. and note. — Even the Greek 
historian, Procopius, adverse as he is to the Goths, 
recognizes the title of Thedoric to his dominions. 
" At Zeno Imperator, gnarus rebus uti ut dabant 
tempora, Theodorico hortator est ut in Italiam iret. 
Odoacroque devicto sibi ipse ac Gothis pararet Oc~ 
cidentis regnnm. Quippe satius homini (Theodoric 
seemed likely to make war on Zeno) in Senatum 
allecto Romae atque Italis imperare, invasore pulso, 
quam arma in Imperatorem cum periculo expend." 
Procop. lib. i. Hist. Got. as translated by Grotius. 



team, Dalmatia, Liburnia, Istria, part of 
Suevia, of Pannonia, and of Gaul ; and 
ruled Spain as guardian of his grandson 
Amalaric: so that Jornandes has grounds 
for his assertion, Necfuit in parte occidud 
gens quce Theodorico dum viveret aut ami- 
citid aut subjectione non deserviret. " The 
Gothic sovereignty was established from 
Sicily to the Danube ; from Sirmium, or 
Belgrade, to the Atlantic Ocean : and 
the Greeks themselves acknowledged that 
Theodoric reigned over the fairest por- 
tion of the Western Empire."* — " With 
the protection, Theodoric assumed the 
legal supremacy of the church ; and his 
firm administration restored or extended 
some useful prerogatives, which had been 
neglected by the feeble Emperors of the 
West :" and reference is made by Gib- 



Agathias also says (lib. i.), Theodoricus non ipsis 
nolentibus, sed Zenonis quondam Imperatoris con- 
cessit venisset in Italiara : neque earn Romanis ab- 
stulisset, qui pridem earn amiserant ; sed depulso 
Odoacro invasore peregrino, belli jure quaesivisset 
quaecunque ille possederat. 

* Giannone Istoria, &c. i. 167. (ed. 1753) Gibbon, 
vii,26. 

o 3 



294 

bon to documents, " which prove, at the 
same time, that Theodoric was head of 
the church as well as of the state." — - 
" When the chair of St. Peter was dis- 
puted by Symmachus and Laurence, they 
appeared at his summons before the tri- 
bunal of an Arian monarch (himself) j 
and he confirmed the election of the most 
worthy or the most obsequious candi- 
date/ 5 — " At the end of his life, in a 
moment of jealousy and resentment, he 
prevented the choice of the Romans by 
nominating a Pope in the palace of Ra- 
venna." * Theodoric disposed of his 
dominions, and of his wealth, exclusively 
as he thought fit, on his death, A.D. 
526. " Conscious of his approaching 
end, he divided his treasures and pro- 
vinces between his two grandsons ; 
and fixed the Rhone as their com- 
mon boundary. Amalaric was restored 
to the throne of Spain. Italy, with all 
the conquests of the Ostrogoths, was be- 
queathed to Athalaric," a boy not above 
ten years of age, son of Theodoric's 
daughter, Amalasontha. " In the pre- 
sence of the dying monarch, the Gothic 

* Gibbon, vii. 37. and notes, 38. 



295 

chiefs and Italian magistrates mutually 
engaged their faith and loyalty to the 
young prince and his guardian mother j" 
and heard TheodoriVs " last advice, to 
maintain the laws, to love the senate and 
the people of Rome, and to cultivate 
with decent reverence the friendship of 
the Emperor." * 

In the preceding account of Theodoric, 
though he evidently reigned in real in- 
dependence, there are some few circum- 
stances which may seem to show a small 
increase of symptoms of vitality in the 
wounded imperial head, and of conval- 
escence from its apparently mortal wound. 
After his death such symptoms were aug- 
mented. Theodoric, as Gibbon states, 
had stamped his own image on his coin : 
but " his modest successors," feeble in 
sex, or in character, or through civil 
dissension, " were satisfied with adding 
their own name to the head of the reign- 
ing emperor."! Here was a manifest 
recognition of some western authority, 
however indefinite, in the Eastern Em- 
peror. 

* Gibbon, vii. 52, 53. f Ibid. vii. 27. note. 
o 4 



296 

Amalasontha and her son Athalaric 
reigned in a sort of hostile alternacy over 
Italy, until the death of Athalaric, at the 
age of sixteen. In order to retain the 
supreme power, in opposition to the 
Gothic law, which excluded females from 
the throne ; she married, A.D. 534, her 
relative Theodatus, whom she expected 
to govern. But in the following year he 
caused her to be put to death.* 

In closing this exposition of the seventh 
head, an objection to which it may be 
deemed liable throughout may require to 
be obviated. It may, perhaps, be assert- 
ed, that the interpretation involves a 
contradiction ; that it represents the wild 
beast as for a season lying virtually dead 
under an apparently mortal wound on his 
imperial head from the Gothic sword, 
and yet as, at the same time, actively 
alive under a reigning Gothic head. Are 
not we, then, prepared by the prophecy 
for seeming contradiction in the history 
of this wild beast ; of whom the angel 
has declared, (Rev. xvii. 8.) that he "was, 
and is not, and yet is, r y v xai oux s<rri 
* Gibbon, vii. 209, 210. 214. 



297 

HaiTsp ecrri *, was, and is not, although he 
is 2" But the contradiction imputed to 
the interpretation is not a real contrariety. 
From the deposition of Augustulus to 
the revival of the imperial head, and its 
conjunction with the ten regal horns, the 
wild beast, viewed as the Western Em- 
pire, or even as a native Roman domin- 
ation, lay ostensibly as dead or dying ; 
but as a Gothic power established in 
Rome and Italy, he was, during the same 
interval, actively alive and reigning. 
Such contemporaneous views of an indi- 
vidual wild beast are fully illustrated by 
Daniel, vii. 12. The Babylonian, Per- 
sian, and Grecian wild beasts, though, as 
prophetic empires, they have severally 
been absolutely and finally defunct since 
the time when they had their dominion 
taken away respectively by Cyrus, Alex- 
ander, and Paulus iEmilius, yet, under 

* The writer is not unapprised that Griesbach 
prefers the reading xa/ra^ai : but is of opinion that 
the arguments of the learned Dean of Lichfield, Dr. 
Woodhouse, (The Apocalypse Translated, &c. p . 426. 
note,) sustained as they are by the authority of 
Irenaeus, may justly be deemed conclusive in favour 
of the reading *$a7r*£ w. 

o 5 



298 

another aspect, had " their lives prolong- 
ed ;" and have been continuously in ac- 
tive exertion of vitality, under their suc- 
cessively reigning heads, to the present 
hour. To this point it will be necessary 
to recur under a subsequent proposition. 

Proposition XX. 

The imperial, or sixth, head revived in 
Justinian, A. D. 533, from its deadly 
wound : and by its incipient conjunction 
with the ten horns, the eighth king, or 
form of government, was at the same 
time constituted. 

Justinian, who had ascended the throne 
of Constantinople, A.D. 527, resolved on 
war against the Vandals established in pos- 
session of the African province belonging 
to the Western Empire. His fleetand army, 
after immense preparations, sailed from 
Constantinople in June, A.D. 533, under 
the command of Belisarius. That gene- 
ral, on the 15th of the following Septem- 
ber, having defeated the Vandal monarch 
Gelimer, took Carthage # ; and, by a de- 
cisive victory over the collected forces of 
* Gibbon, vii. 174—177. 



299 

the Vandals in November of the same 
year, established the dominion of the 
Eastern Emperor over that ancient terri- 
tory of Rome.* It was also apparently 
within the same year, A. D. 533, that 
Belisarius regained Sardinia and Corsica; 
for they " surrendered to an officer who 
carried, instead of a sword, the head of 
the valiant Zanot," the brother of Geli- 
mer, and slain in the preceding battle in 
November. And it seems very probable 
that it was at the same time that the 
neighbouring isles of Majorca, Minorca, 
and Ivica surrendered; though Gibbon 
does not specially discriminate these 
events in point of time from the submis- 
sion of the distant provinces t successively 
subdued, A.D. 534, by the report of the 
victory. Thus Justinian actually pos- 
sessed, A.D. 533, on the coin of the 
Gothic kings of Rome and Italy, a pub- 
lic recognition of his imperial title, and 
of western jurisdiction attached to it; 
and also was master of a positive terri- 
tory within the Western Empire. In 
that very year, therefore, A.D. 533, the 

* Gibbon, to. 181. t Ibid. 186. % Ibid.vii.186. 

o 6 



300 

wounded imperial head was healed, and 
the wild beast re-appeared with restored 
vigour. And it was on the Ides of March, 
in this same year, and when the prepar- 
ations for the African expedition were 
advancing, that, according to the ori- 
ginal documents stated by Mr. Cuning- 
hame # , Justinian published his edict, and 
addressed his letter to the Pope, by which 
acts he authoritatively delivered the saints 
into the hands of the little horn, t 

* Dissert. 2d edit. p. 208. 

f If the question as to the date of the commence- 
ment of the twelve hundred and sixty years turn on 
the point, whether the saints were delivered into the 
power of the little horn by Justinian, A. D. 533, or 
by Phocas, A. D. 606 ; the original documents, 
cited entire and verbatim by Mr. Cuninghame 
(2d edition, p. 201 — 208.) respecting the pro- 
ceedings of the two emperors, appear to set the 
question at rest. By those documents it is demon- 
strated, that Phocas did not confer, as Mr. Faber 
unguardedly contends, any new power on the Roman 
See, or any new title whatever on the Pope ; but 
simply confirmed, at the request of Pope Boni- 
face, the antecedent authoritative declaration of 
Justinian, that the Roman See was the head of all 
the churches, a declaration which the church of 
Constantinople was infringing by attempting to as- 
sume that title. It might as reasonably be made a 



SOI 

If it should be alleged, that Justinian, 
though acknowledged on the coin of the 

question whether Magna Charta is to be dated from 
the grant of King John, or from some one of its 
subsequent recognitions and confirmations by suc- 
ceeding kings, 

Mr. Faber's argument, purporting to prove that 
the twelve hundred and sixty years cannot yet be 
terminated, because the commencement, as he af- 
firms, of the restoration of the Jews, an event still 
future, is immediately to ensue at the end of that 
period, appears to receive a full answer from Mr. 
Cuninghame, (2d edition, p. 264.) in his observ- 
ations on Daniel, xi. xu. Mr. Faber, in his third 
volume, subsequently reiterates the same opinion on 
this point ; but without any specific reply to the re- 
marks of Mr. Cuninghame. 

Whether, as Mr. Cuninghame supposes, the event 
which will characterise the termination of the twelve 
hundred and ninety years, Daniel, xii. 11., is to be 
the commencement of the restoration of the Jews, 
can at present be only a conjecture* The intended 
event, whatever it may prove, having been left by 
the Prophet without the slightest specification of its 
nature, may either be one which, by its magnitude, 
shall at once show itself likely to mark a prophetic 
epocha ; or may be one which shall be only the first 
small step in a series of connected occurrences gra- 
dually swelling into high importance, and thus may 
attract little notice until succeeding years shall have 
disclosed in its consequences its claim to the station 
which, in the mind of prophecy, was assigned to it. 



302 

Gothic kings of Italy, at the time of the 
publication of the preceding letter and 
edict, as possessing imperial authority 
in the west, cannot properly be regarded 
as Emperor of the West, and competent to 
deliver the saints into the hands of the 
little horn, unless it be proved that he 
was also in possession, not merely before 
the conclusion of the same year, but at 
the very time, of some portion of territory 
within the Western Empire; the demand, 
though it may be somewhat unreasonable, 
may apparently be historically satisfied. 
Gibbon informs us # , that the project of 
an invasion of Africa was a subject of 
anxious debate in the cabinet of Con- 
stantinople; that the undertaking was 
powerfully opposed in full council, as 
highly dangerous, by the Emperor's prime 
minister, John of Cappadocia; that Jus- 
tinian was staggered by the arguments 
advanced, and perhaps might have re- 
linquished the meditated enterprise, if 
his courage had not been revived by a 
bishop, who averred that he had seen a 
favourable vision, " The Emperor," pro- 

* Gibbon, vii. 159—161. 



303 

ceeds the historian, " might be tempted, 
and his counsellors were constrained, to 
give credit to this seasonable revelation : 
but they derived more rational hope from 
the revolt which the adherents of Hilderic 
or Athanasius had already excited on the 
borders of the Vandal monarchy. Pu- 
dentius, an African subject, privately sig- 
nified his loyal intentions ; and a small mi- 
litary aid restored the province of Tripoli 
to the obedience of the Romans" As the 
revolt of Pudentius thus appears to have 
been known at Constantinople before the 
Emperor had determined on the African 
war ; as preparations for the war would 
not be made to any extent, if at all, be- 
fore that determination ; as the prepar- 
ations subsequently made were, according 
to Gibbon's details, extremely great and 
varied, " not unworthy of the last con- 
test between Rome and Carthage *," and 
would necessarily require proportionate 
time for their completion ; and, as the 
whole armament sailed from Constan- 
tinople at Midsummer, A.D. 533, within 
three months after the date of the Em- 
* Gibbon, vii, 167 — 177, 



304 

peror's letter to the Pope : there seems 
the strongest reason to believe that, when 
he wrote that letter, the province of Tri- 
poli was already under his dominion. 

The wild beast, brought seemingly unto 
the verge of death, A.D. 476, by the 
wound inflicted on his sixth head by the 
Gothic sword, was at that time cast into 
the Abyss as a defunct empire, and shut 
up there. He was received in the Abyss 
by his employer and patron, the Devil, 
the great dragon ; who gradually healed 
his wound, and prepared him to become, 
under an eighth form of government, 
and with the restored possession of the 
" pow r er * and throne and great authority" 
of Satan, the instrument of renewed hos- 
tility against the Church and the Saints, 
so soon as an opportunity should be pre- 
sented for his return to the surface of the 
earth. This opportunity was furnished 
by the fallen star, the apostate bishop, 
namely, the Pope, who unlocked the door 
of the (ppsaf) of the Abyss.t And why ? 
To let out, not surely his own natural 

* Rev. xiii. 2. 

f Rev. ix. Cuningjhame, 2d edit. p. 76—78. 



305 

enemies, the Saracenic locusts, which af- 
terwards took advantage of the door being 
open, and came out ; but the smoke of 
his own corrupt doctrines, and also his 
confederate, the revived wild beast. 
Instantly the wild beast, having thus 
emerged from the Abyss with renovated 
strength, flung himself on the tumultuous 
sea of Gothic warfare *, commenced his 
triumphant career of twelve hundred 
and sixty years, and soon established 
himself on terra firma in dominion more 
tremendous than that which he had exer- 
cised before. This dominion, too, was as 
prophecy requiredt, the wild beast himself; 
not the sovereignty of a Goth holding the 
wild beast under subjugation, but the an- 
cient Roman imperial power again en- 
throned in the Western Empire. This 
imperial power was manifestly one " of 
the seven" heads t ; for it was the sixth 
head revived. And it was also an eighth 
form : not because chronologically it was 
a re-establishment of the sixth head after 
the fall of the seventh, but because it was 

* Rev. xiii. 1. f & ev ' XV1U H- t ^ eVe xv "' W* 






306 

modified into an actually new form by its 
conjunction with ten independent regal 
horns. 

Belisarius, A.D. 535, recovered Sicily 
from the Goths ; and in the next year 
invaded Italy, and took the city of Rome. 
The Goths never were able to drive the 
Eastern forces from Italy j but continued 
the war, in the course of which they 
twice regained temporary possession of 
Rome, until the defeat and death of 
Teias, their last king, A.D. 553.* From 
that time, Rome and Ravenna, with the 
Italian province, which varied in dimen- 
sions as more or less pressed by the Lom- 
bard invaders, were governed for the 
Eastern Emperorsbytheirdeputies, termed 
Exarchs ; and during two hundred years, 
without opposition to the delegated au- 
thority. t A revolt of Rome and Ravenna, 
and their territory, against the Emperor 
Leo the Isaurian intervened, A.D. 728, 
on account of his edicts against images. 
The Exarch was killed ; the Emperor's 
forces were defeated ; and the Italians 

* Gibbon, vii. 398. f Ibid - viii - 1*5, H6. 



307 

threatened to elect an orthodox emperor, 
and conduct him to Constantinople. But 
the Pope, having thus practically secured 
the government of Rome and its district 
to himself^ " delayed and prevented the 
election of a new emperor ; and exhorted 
the Italians not to separate from the body 
of the Roman monarchy. The Exarch 
was permitted to reside within the walls 
of Ravenna, a captive rather than a mas- 
ter j and till the imperial coronation of 
Charlemagne, the government of Rome 
and Italy was exercised in the name of 
the successors of Constantinople." * Thus 
the revived imperial head has continued 
from Justinian through Charlemagne and 
his successors to our own times. Its con- 
nexion with the little horn and with th& 
ten horns is now to be noticed. 

The intimate union of the Pope with 
Justinian is sufficiently proved by the 
edict and letter of March, A.D. 533. 
On the invasion of Italy by Belisarius, 
A.D. 536, the people of Rome rising 
against the Gothic garrison, " furiously 
exclaimed, that the apostolic throne 
* Gibbon, ix. 131—141. 



f 1 



308 

should no longer be profaned by the 
triumph or toleration of Arianism ; that 
the tombs of the Caesars should no 
longer be trampled by the savages of the 
north ; and, without reflecting that Italy 
must sink into a province of Constan- 
tinople, they fondly hailed the restor- 
ation of a Roman emperor as a new era 
of freedom and prosperity. The deputies 
of the Pope and clergy, of the senate and 
people, invited the lieutenant of Justinian 
to accept their voluntary allegiance, and 
to enter the city, whose gates would 
be thrown open for his reception."* The 
continuance of the union between the 
little horn and the revived imperial head 
down to the present age is incontro- 
vertible. 

The submission of the regal horns to 
subserviency under the revived wild beast 
and his little horn took place gradually 
and successively. It has been shown not 
to be necessary to the illustration of pro- 
phecy, nor perhaps would the records of 
credible history render the attempt feas- 
ible, to define the precise time when all 

* Gibbon, vii. 223. 



309 

of them severally and distinctly entered 
as horns into that subserviency. The 
African province became subject to Jus- 
tinian and to the Pope, A.D. 533. France 
also may justly be regarded as becoming 
subservient, through the medium of the 
little horn, to the wild beast from the 
hour of his revival. For the Franks, with 
their king, Clovis, were converted from 
Paganism to the Catholic faith, A.D. 496 # j 
and thus, though alien to the wild beast so 
long as his seventh Arian head was reign- 
ing, coalesced with him at once when 
he revived under his Catholic imperial 
head. The general progress of subjec- 
tion in the case of the remaining horns 
may appear from the following summary. 
Numerous Roman captives, some of them 
Ecclesiastics, having been carried into Da 
cia by the Goths in the reign of Gallienus, 
converted many of the Goths ; and pre. 
pared the way for the general conversion 
of the nation, A.D. 360, and in succeed- 
ing years, by Ulphilas, the Gothic Apos- 
tle, who adopted and taught Arianism. 
About the end of the fourth century, or 
* Mosheim, Maclaine's Translation; ii. 6. 96. 






310 

soon afterwards, the Visigoths became 
Christians. " During the same period, 
Christianity was embraced by almost all 
the Barbarians who established their 
kingdoms on the ruins of the Western 
Empire ; the Burgundians in Gaul, the 
Suevi in Spain, the Vandals in Africa, 
the Ostrogoths in Pannonia, and the 
various bands of mercenaries that raised 
Odoacer to the throne of Italy." — 
" Arianism was adopted as the national 
faith of the warlike converts, who were 
seated on the ruins of the Western Em- 
pire." # Clovis reduced, A.D. 508, the 
Arian Visigoths of Aquitain under his 
dominion t, leaving them only a narrow 
tract of sea-coast from the Rhone to the 
Pyrennees, and restored the Catholic 
faith : and his sons, A.D. 532, completed 
the conquest and the conversion to Po- 
pery of Burgundy t, under which name 
was included the country beyond Mont 
Jura as far as the lakes of Constance 
and Geneva §: and reduced Thuringia, 

* Gibbon, vi. 269—278. f Gibbon, vi. 336. 

$ Mosheim, iu-143. 

§ Gibbon, vi.315. and note, and 328. 



311 

Rhoetia, and Noricum into vassalage. * 
Justinian, A.D. 536, acknowledged the 
independence of the French monarchy, 
and absolved the provincials beyond the 
Alps from allegiance to himself, t " The 
Romans" of Gaul " communicated to 
their conquerors the use of the Christian 
religion and the Latin language. Such in- 
tercourse of sacred and social communion 
eradicated the distinctions of birth and 
victory." t In a similar manner, with a 
more or less rapid progress, the barbarian 
victors settled in the other parts of the 
Western Empire were gradually Roman* 
ised, by adopting the faith, and assimi- 
lating themselves to the manners, lan- 
guage, and institutions of the vanquished. 
The Bavarians were converted under 
Theodoric, the son of Clovis§, to the 
Catholic faith. Ethelbert, king of Kent, 
was converted, A.D. 596, by Augustine, 
whom Pope Gregory had sent for the 
purpose. || " The Vandals and the Os- 
trogoths persevered in the profession of 

* Gibbon, vi. 341. f Gibbon, vi. 339. 
% Ibid, vi. 372. § Mosheim, ii. 284. 

|| Mosheim, ii. 97. 



312 

Arianism until the final ruin," by the arms 
of Justinian, " of the kingdoms which 
they had founded in Africa and Italy." 
" Spain was restored to the Catholic 
Church by the voluntary conversion of 
the Visigoths ;" which was completed by 
the efforts of their king Reccared, about 
A.D. 589 : and such of the Suevi as had not 
antecedently adopted the Catholic creed, 
including those settled in Portugal, with 
their king, Theodomir, were converted 
to it at the same time. # The Pagan 
Lombards, who had established them- 
selves in Italy, A.D. 568, and were con- 
verted, A.D. 587 > to Arianism t, began to 
adopt the Catholic faith under the in- 
fluence of their queen, Theodolinda, 
about A.D. 600 ; and the work was 
accomplished before the end of the 
seventh century. Columbas laboured 
successfully among the Scots and Picts 
in the latter part of the sixth century ; 
and extended his exertions to the Con- 
tinent among the Gauls, Boii, Suevi, 
Franks, and other Germans. He died 

* Gibbon, vi. 295—300. Mosheim, ii. 143. 
f Mosheim, ii. 104. Gibbon, vi. 301, 302. note. 



313 

A.D. 615. His companion, St. Gall, 
preached to the Helvetii. St. Kilian, 
from Scotland, had extraordinary success 
among the Eastern Franks. The rest of 
the Saxons in England were converted in 
the seventh century. Towards the con- 
clusion of the same century, Willebrod, 
with eleven associates, crossed the sea 
from England into Batavia ; and spread 
the light of the gospel among the Fries- 
landers and the Westphalians, and in the 
neighbouring countries. * The work was 
pursued by Boniface, named the Apostle 
of Germany, from A.D. 715, to his 
death, A.D. ^55 ; and with most ardent 
zeal for the domination of the Pope, t 
Charlemagne constrained the Huns in 
Pannonia to profess Christianity % : but, 
perhaps, the portion of Pannonia which 
was included within the Western Empire 
might be christianized earlier. 

Proposition XXI. 

The present state of the wild beast is 
not inconsistent with the preceding ex- 

* Mosheim, ii; 97. 153—155. 204. 
f lb. 204— 207 $ lb. 208. 

P 






314 

planation of the seventh head, and of the 
eighth form of government. 

Mr. Faber affirms *, that the sixth, or 
imperial head continued in uninterrupted 
succession through the Eastern Emperors 
and Charlemagne, from Augustus, to the 
abdication of the Emperor of Austria, on 
the 7th August 1806; that on this abdi- 
cation arose the seventh head, the Francic 
emperorship of Napoleon ; that in 1815, 
the seventh head was u wounded to 
death" by the " sword" of England at 
Waterloo, and lopped offt ; that in con- 
sequence the wild beast at the same time 
fell into his predicted state of non-exist- 
ence t, in which he is still continuing; 
and that at some future time he will 
revive, by the healing of his wounded 
seventh head, the Francic Emperorship, 
and thus by a simple revival chronologi- 
cally, as an imperial head without other 
alteration, will constitute an eighth form 
of government ; and will prepare his vassal 
confederate kings for the battle of Arma- 
geddon, where he will go into perdition. 

* Dissert, iii. 21, 23, 28, 44, &c. 

f Rev. xiii, 1— 14» t Rev. xvii. 8 — 11. 



315 

It is plain that this interpretation is 
wholly incompatible with the truth of the 
earlier fundamental propositions already 
stated. The truth of these propositions 
has been rested on grounds furnished by 
the Prophecy itself; grounds entirely in- 
dependent of the subsequent application 
of the propositions to the Gothic dynasty, 
and to Justinian and his imperial succes- 
sors. To the mind of the writer, the 
propositions themselves, at present, ap- 
pear, on re-examination, to be fairly de- 
duced. 

But it is not merely to objections 
which may be deemed indirect that Mi% 
Faber's interpretation is exposed. It 
apparently involves such inevitable in- 
ferences, as, if justly to be drawn from it, 
will render the very proposer of it fore- 
most in renouncing it. Mr. Faber main- 
tains *, that the rising of the wild beast 
from the sea (Rev. xiii. 1.), and his ascent 
from the abyss (xvii. 8.), are identically 
the same event; that this rising is his 
predicted revival t from a state of non* 

* iii. 99—108. f Hi. 28. 35, 



316 

existence (xiii. 8. xvii. 8.) ; that this non- 
existence took place in consequence of 
the excision of his seventh head by the 
sword of England at Waterloo # ; and 
that his revival, or rising from the sea, 
or abyss, is yet future, and will consti- 
tute his eighth form, which will be simply 
a repetition t of his short-lived seventh 
form. If these things be so, if this re- 
vival from non-existence be yet future, it 
appears incontestably to follow, from the 
thirteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, 
that the twelve hundred and sixty years 
have not yet commenced ; that the wit- 
nesses have not yet begun to prophesy ; 
that the saints have never yet been de- 
livered into the hands of the little horn : 
— positions in complete opposition to all 
civil and ecclesiastical history ; to the 
concurrent feelings of the whole Pro- 
testant world ; and to the opinions of no 
one more decidedly than of Mr. Faber 
himself. 

Mr. Faber's positions, that, at the 
battle of Waterloo, the then existing 
head of the wild beast was lopped off, and 
* iii. 27. 36. 41. f lb. 106. 108, 116. 



) 



317 

that, in consequence, the wild beast him- 
self fell into a state of non-existence, do 
not appear to be supported, in point of 
fact, by any solid foundation. The 
reigning form of government at that time 
consisted not simply of an imperial head ; 
but of an imperial head conjoined with 
the ten regal horns. By the battle of 
Waterloo the political union, which for 
many centuries had nominally connected 
the ten horns with the possessor of the 
imperial title, was dissolved. Be it 
allowed, that the continued claim ad- 
vanced by Napoleon to his former title, 
situation, and empire, as belonging to 
him, on the ground that his offer of 
abdication in favour of his son was not 
accepted, was to be accounted, in the in- 
terpretation of prophecy, as nothing. 
Admit, also, that no other imperial power 
is now regarded as the representative of 
the Caesars. Still the sovereignty of the 
ten horns exists as it was j and it appears 
entitled to be considered as sovereignty 
over the Roman wild beast, on the same 
grounds on which the four horns of the 
Grecian wild beast, independent and un- 
v 3 



318 

connected with any superior head, were 
described to the prophet Daniel* as 
sovereign over the body of that wild 
beast. Nay, if the dominion of the Ro- 
man wild beast himself be assumed as at 
present abolished, must not we conclude 
that, confessedly destined as he is to 
regain his sway, he is contemplated by 
prophecy as still alive ; when it is de- 
clared concerning his three predecessors, 
the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Gre- 
cian wild beasts, that, although they had 
their dominion taken away, a dominion 
never to be restored, yet their lives were 
prolonged? The life of a prophetic wild 
beast is not merely political. It subsists 
not in his dominion, but in his cha- 
racter ; in his idolatrous hostility to true 
religion. The lives of the three ante- 
cedent wild beasts have remained, because 
the ancient Babylonian, Medo-Persian, 
and Grecian territories have substantially 
remained to this hour idolatrous and hos- 
tile to true religion, immersed succes- 
sively in the darkness of Paganism, or 
of Mahometanism, or of the idolatry of 

* Dan. viii. 8. 22. 



319 

the Greek Church. And it is ascertained 
by the express statement of Daniel, that 
their lives will continue until the destruc- 
tion of the Roman wild beast also, when 
all the kingdoms of this world shall be- 
come the kingdoms of our Lord and of his 
Christ. For the Stone that smites the 
image on his feet (Daniel, ii. 34, 35, 44), 
by the same stroke grinds to powder every 
part of his body. But the component 
kingdoms of the Roman wild beast are at 
present united into one living Roman 
body by ties more strong and visible than 
those which combined, to the eye of pro* 
phecy, the kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, 
and the other portions of the subdivided 
empire of Alexander, into a living Gre- 
cian whole. The different members of 
the Roman body are still incorporated 
closely into one whole, through the me- 
dium of their common religious subjec- 
tion to the little horn, the false prophet, 
who " exerciseth all the power of the 
first beast before him." # Thus the 
wild beast still lives, and exerts himself 
with energy. At this moment, in the 

* Rev. xiii. 12. 
P 4 









320 

new constitutions promulgated by his 
Spanish and Portuguese kingdoms, and 
adopted also in the attempted revolution 
at Naples, he has actively evinced his 
ancient antipathy to the saints of the 
Most High, by the fundamental article * 
common to those constitutions, that no 
form whatever of religion but the Roman 
Catholic shall be permitted to be exer- 
cised. His present condition appears 
well to accord with the predicted effects 
of the effusion of the fifth vial.f The 
vial is poured upon " the seat," the 
throne (roy Qpovov) of the wild beast ; and 
his kingdom is full of darkness, His im- 
perial head, established in France, has 
been beaten down into abeyance : and 
the regal horns are at present reigning 

* " The religion of the Spanish nation is, and 
shall be perpetually, Catholic, Apostolic, and Ro- 
man, the only true religion. The nation protects it 
by wise and just laws, and prohibits the exercise at" 
any other whatever." And every Deputy to the 
Cortes is always to take the following oath : " I 
swear to defend and preserve the Catholic, Apos- 
tolic, and Roman religion, without admitting any 
other into the kingdom.'* 

f Rev. xvi. 10. 



821 

without any visible connection with it.* 
A state so singular seems to express upon 
its face the signs of transient duration. 
And as the eighth form has been histori- 
cally proved to consist of a combination 
of an imperial head with regal horns, and 
is the form under which the wild beast is 
to go into perdition t; the restoration of 
the imperial head is certain. The cer- 
tainty of this restoration does not demon- 
strate that the locality will be either at 
first, or at all, in France. The throne 
might migrate back to Austria, or else- 
where. But if the opinion strenuously 
advocated by Mr. Faber, that the power 
intended by Daniel t under the descrip- 
tion of the wilful king is revolutionary 
France, be just; then is it certain also, 
that the French emperorship and domin- 
ation will be restored for their season. 

* The practical analogy between emblematic 
horns and emblematic heads of a prophetical wild 
beast, is extremely close. Thus the four kingdoms 
into which the empire of Alexander is divided, are 
represented to Daniel in one vision, vii. 6. as four 
heads, in another, viii. 8. 21, 22. as four horns, of 
the Grecian wild beast. 

f Rev. xvii. 11. § Daniel, xi. 36. to the end. 
p 5 



322 

The restoration of the imperial head, 
.wherever or with whatever alternations it 
may be re-established, will apparently 
take place in the early part of the course, 
if not antecedently to the commence- 
ment, of that predicted " time of trouble, 
such as never was since there was a 
nation even to that same time 5 *," in 
which the ancient people of God are to 
be re-settled in Palestine ; the great city, 
Babylon, is to be destroyed, unexpect- 
edly, and as in a momentt, and con- 
signed to perpetual desolation ; the ten- 
horned wild beast, and his two-horned 
associate, the false prophet, are subse- 
quently to be cast into perdition t 9 with 
every remaining power opposed to the 
gospel; and the universal reign of Christ, 
the King of kings and Lord of lords, is 
to overspread the earth. For the ap- 
proach of this period of unexampled tri- 
bulation, the suddenness also of whose 
bursting forth is declared as emphati- 
cally § as the tremendousness of its perils 

* Daniel, xii. 1. 

f Rev. xviii. 2. 8. 10. 17. 19. 21. &c. 

f Rev. xix. 20. § Rev. xvi. 14, 15, 16. 



323 

and its inflictions, may the servants of 
God prove themselves effectually pre- 
pared ! May they be supported through- 
out its continuance by the strength and 
the consolations of His Holy Spirit ! * 

* Interpreters who, believing the twelve hun- 
dred and sixty years to have already terminated, 
consider the death and the resurrection of the wit- 
nesses to have taken place, are not entirely agreed 
as to the events in which they suppose the prediction 
to have been accomplished. The prevailing opinion 
appears to be, that it was fulfilled, as to the death of 
the witnesses, in the silencing of the reformed 
teachers and the political extinction of Protestant- 
ism, A.D. 1548, in Germany, the broad sheet (srAa- 
•raa) of the great Papal city, by the establishment of 
the Interim after the victory of the Emperor Charles 
the Fifth over the Smalcaldic League : and as to 
their resurrection, by the successes of Maurice over 
Charles, commencing A.D. 1552, and in the same 
year resulting in the treaty of Passau, by which the 
Protestants were completely secured in possession 
of religious liberty, and were admitted on an equality 
with the Catholics to seats in the Imperial Chamber. 
The principal argument adduced against this inter* 
pretation, and substantially against any interpreta- 
tion which describes the death and the resurrection 
of the witnesses as events already past, is the fol- 
lowing. The witnesses, it is alleged, represent the 
whole body of Christians in the Western Empire 
holding the genuine doctrines of the Gospel in op- 

p 6 



324 

position to Papal corruptions, and not any detached^ 
portion of that body as distinguished from the rest* 
Consequently, the death of the witnesses must be an 
event co-extensive with that body ; and cannot im- 
ply less than a contemporaneous suppression and 
political extinction of the reformed religion through- 
out the dominions of the wild beast and his ten 
horns. But the victories of Charles the Fifth pro- 
duced the temporary suppression of Protestantism 
only in apart of these dominions. And in England, 
at that very time, from A.D. 1548 to A.D. 1552, the 
reformed religion was not only free from persecu- 
tion, but was triumphant through the exertions of 
Edward the Sixth and his ministers. Thus, it is 
added, the witnesses are affirmed, by this mode of 
interpretation, to be at the same time triumphant and 
lying dead ; and, after their asserted ascension into 
heaven, are, at the present day, still prophesying on 
earth in sackcloth. 

On this argument it may be observed, that the 
latter part is of no moment, except on the supposi- 
tion that the death and the resurrection must be 
universal through the Western Empire. If consist- 
ently with the words of prophecy the two events 
may be limited to a portion of that empire ; there is 
no difficulty in conceiving that the witnesses, while 
silenced in one part, may be triumphant in another. 
The question then is ; Does the argument prove that 
the death and the resurrection must of necessity be 
universal? 

To show that there is no such necessity would 
suffice to prove that the principle of interpret- 
ation before us is admissible, and may be right. Its 



825 

defenders, however, proceed farther. They con- 
tend that it is the only principle which can be right* 
or is admissible. They allege that the death and 
the resurrection of the witnesses are locally fixed by 
the prophecy to the broad street of the great city, 
and are thus appropriated to the principal kingdom 
under her jurisdiction at the time ; and that the do- 
minions of the Emperor Charles the Fifth were un- 
deniably that kingdom. 

But there is an additional reply to the argument. 
The very objection itself which is advanced against 
any interpretation limiting the death and the resur- 
rection of the witnesses to a portion of the Western 
Empire, raises equal and similar difficulties against 
any interpreter, who maintains that they must be 
general throughout that empire. For if it be argued 
that those events must necessarily be general, be- 
cause the witnesses represent the true Church col- 
lectively ; on the same ground must the prophesying 
in sackcloth be general. How stands the_fact, then, 
as to the prophesying in sackcloth ? Is not Protes- 
tant Britain a part of the witnesses ? And will any 
one say that Protestantism is now prophesying in Bri- 
tain in sackcloth, under the domination of Popery ? 
Will any one say that such has been the case since 
the establishment of the reformation in the reign of 
Elizabeth ? In Holland, is Protestantism prophe- 
sying in sackcloth under the fangs of the Roman 
wild beast ? Or in Switzerland ? During the last 
two centuries has it been so prophesying in either 
of those countries ? Has it, in truth, been prophe- 
sying in sackcloth in Germany since the peace of 
Passau? Is it now prophesying in sackcloth in 



326 

Germany, where, by the constitutional basis of the 
new Germanic Confederation fixed at the Congress 
of Vienna, Protestants have exactly the same civil 
rights as Catholics ? Is it now prophesying in sack- 
cloth in France, where the same security of religious 
profession and the same equality of civil rights are 
parts of the constitution ? In Spain and Portugal, 
(where, however, the Inquisition is abolished,) the 
profession of Protestantism is prohibited by the new 
constitutions, and also in some of the Italian states ; 
and there the witnesses may still be said to prophesy, 
if at all, in sackcloth. But if the prophesying in sack- 
cloth of the witnesses has been and is thus limited, 
although they represent the general body of the op- 
posers of Papal corruptions : why may not the death 
and the resurrection of the witnesses be also limited 
to a portion of the Western Empire ? 



327 



ESSAY VIII. 

PLAIN PROOF TO THE POOR THAT THE 
BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD. 



I he following pages, in consequence of 
bearing the form of a personal address, 
may not be, in strictness of construction, 
entitled to the denomination of an essay. 
Yet since, in substance, they are anal- 
ogous to the second of the preceding 
essays, and confirm, from another branch 
of internal testimony, the truth of the 
Bible ; they may, perhaps, be ranked 
without material impropriety under a si- 
milar name. They were originally writ- 
ten for dispersion among the lower classes 
of the community in the year eighteen 
hundred and nineteen j and received an 
extensive circulation. If they advance 
an argument subsidiary to the proofs on 



328 

which the divine origin of the Scriptures 
is established ; and if every argument 
subsidiary to so momentous a truth may 
not be unimportant to an individual in 
any class of society : the writer may hope 
that they will not here be out of place. 

I understand, my friends, that attempts 
are diligently making to persuade you 
that the Bible is not the Word of God. 
I hear, too, that many among you are un- 
happy enough, for so you must allow me 
to express myself, to have had their faith 
in this holy book shaken by those en- 
deavours. As you have been brought up 
in a free and a Protestant country, where 
the Scriptures are open to every person, 
and are constantly explained in the 
places of public worship ; I fear that I 
shall not speak honestly, if I do not say, 
that a distrust of the truth of the Bible 
must be a very serious sin on your part. 
But I will not dwell on that point at pre- 
sent, lest you should think that I am in- 
clined to blame you unreasonably. For 
perhaps you will reply to me j " God 
will not require us to believe a book, of 



329 

which we do not know whether it came 
from him or not. And how can we 
know ? You tell us that it is his word. 
Other persons bring many plausible ob- 
jections against it, and assure us that it 
is not his word. We have no learning. 
How are we to judge which of these 
opinions is right ?" 

I will take the matter then on the 
ground on which it is thus placed. And 
though I cannot admit that God may not 
most justly require that you should long 
ago have believed a book to come from 
him, of which you are still remaining un- 
certain whether it came from him or not ; 
yet I at once acknowledge that he will 
not require you to believe that a book 
comes from him, concerning which you 
have not sufficient means of being well 
satisfied that it does come from him. 
You may be ignorant that a book 
comes from him, because you may not 
have been willing to take the pains to 
enquire and examine into the subject. 
Ignorance in that case is your own fault ; 
and never can stand as your excuse. But 
you say that there are different opinions 



330 

as to the truth of the Bible, and that you 
have not learning to judge between them. 
I could wish for the moment that you 
were endued with learning ; because I 
could then place before you many con- 
clusive arguments for the truth of the 
Bible, which it would now be unsuitable 
for me to mention. But learning un- 
doubtedly is not required from persons 
in your station of life : for God has ap- 
pointed that your time must be so con- 
tinually employed in other ways, that 
you cannot have leisure to gain what we 
commonly call learning. And therefore 
he will not hold you guilty for not know- 
ing such things as cannot be compre- 
hended without the help of learning. 
But I may undertake to show you that, 
without possessing learning, you may see 
abundant reasons, if you will attend to 
them, for being convinced that the Bible 
is true. If the fact be so ; you will justly 
be condemned by Almighty God, if you 
do not believe the Bible. 

This, be assured, is no subject of light 
consideration. I would speak to you 
concerning it as I would speak to myself. 



331 

For myself, I have no hopes of salvation 
but those which are given to me by the 
Bible. I am certain that by my sins I 
deserve the condemnation which the 
Bible pronounces to be prepared for sin- 
ners, I know that I cannot undo any 
past sin, I know that I cannot make 
amends before God for any one of my 
past sins : for all the right things which I 
may be enabled to do for the time to 
come will be no more than my bounden 
duty at the time of doing them, I am 
certain that, if I live, I shall commit 
more sin. I am certain that the very 
best actions which I may perform will bb 
in themselves defective through a mix- 
ture of sin in them, and will in conse- 
quence stand in need of forgiveness. I 
have therefore no hopes of pardon, and 
of happiness after death, except through 
redemption by the atoning blood of the 
Lord Jesus Christ ; which redemption is 
revealed to me in the Bible. Now, my 
friends, I cannot but look upon you as 
standing precisely in the same situation 
with myself as to all these points. I re- 
gard you as in the same danger with my- 



332 

self; as having the same salvation offered 
to you as to myself through the blood of 
Christ, who by the grace of God tasted 
death for every man *, and only through 
that blood ; as equally interested with 
myself in that most important declaration 
of the Bible, that there is no other name 
under Heaven given among men, where- 
by we may be saved, but the name of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, t Most deeply then 
are you interested in the enquiry whether 
the Bible is the word of God. 

In all enquiries the great point is, to 
carry them on fairly. Otherwise we only 
deceive ourselves by pretending to en- 
quire ; and are almost certain to be led into 
a false judgement If we would know 
whether the Bible is the word of God, 
we must carry on the examination with 
impartial minds : we must be as ready to 
believe on sufficient proof that the Bible 
comes from God, as to believe the con- 
trary. Now there is a circumstance 
which makes us naturally less willing to 
believe that the Bible is the word of God, 
than to believe that it is not. The Bible 

* Hebrews, ii. 9. f Acts, iv. 12, 



333 

positively forbids every kind of sin ; and 
threatens it with punishment here and 
hereafter. We naturally love to indulge 
ourselves in those things which the Bible 
forbids ; and therefore have a leaning in 
our hearts against the Bible, and a dispo- 
sition to wish that it may not be true. 
Unless this leaning be as it were set 
straight, we shall come not with impartial 
minds, but with minds in a prejudiced 
and an unfair state, to the enquiry whe- 
ther the Bible is the word of God. How 
is this leaning to be set straight ? Perhaps 
you will reply ; — " We must strive to do 
all that we can to judge fairly." By all 
means. And there is one thing in par- 
ticular which you can do for the purpose, 
and which I think you will perceive with 
me to be most highly reasonable* You 
can earnestly pray to God to bring your 
minds into an impartial state ; and to 
enable you to judge fairly whether the 
Bible is His word. 

Let me now go on to the proof that 
the Bible is His word : a proof which, as 
I said before, it will not require learning 
on your part to understand. 



334< 

The Bible is at any rate a very ancient 
Book. You may safely take my word 
that it is so ; because the persons who 
deny the truth of the Bible do not deny 
its antiquity. Its antiquity cannot be 
denied. The early books of the Old 
Testament were confessedly written and 
openly read above three thousand years 
ago, and the latter books above two thou- 
sand. And the books of the New Tes- 
tament are also acknowledged by infidels 
themselves to have been written and made 
public more than seventeen hundred 
years. But you will say, — " The anti- 
quity of a book does not prove the book 
to be true." You say right. A book 
may be very old, and very false. Ob- 
serve, then, that I am not bringing for- 
ward the antiquity of the Bible as any 
proof of its truth. I mention its an- 
tiquity for the following reason only; 
namely, to show you that, at all events, 
the Bible is no modern fabrication pur- 
posely contrived to deceive yourselves 
or your great-grandfathers, and to obtain 
some advantage for some other person at 
your or their expense. 
l 9 



335 

The Bible is either the word of God, 
or the word of man. If it does not come 
from God, it is of course the invention 
of men. If it be an invention of men, it 
is a book full of falsehood : for it con- 
stantly declares itself to be the word of 
God. Its language concerning itself, 
whether of parts or of the whole, is 
always of this kind — God spake all these 
words — The Lord hath spoken — Thus 
saith the Lord God — These are the trite 
sayings of God — The Gospel is in truth 
the word of God. All Scripture is given 
by inspiration of God.* 

If a man forges any writing which re- 
lates to a matter of consequence, he 
forges it that he may gain some advan- 
tage for himself at the expense of others. 
If a person forges a will, he does so 
that he may acquire the property for 
himself from the lawful heirs. If he 
counterfeits a bank note, it is that he 
may defraud the bank of the amount, or 
any one whom he can persuade to take 

* See Exodus, xx. 1* Isaiah* i. 2. Ezekiel, v. 11. 
and so in many other places. Revelation, xix. 9. 
^ Thessal. ii. 13. 2 Tim. iii. 16, 



336 

the note. If he forges a receipt to a 
tradesman's bill, which he owes and is 
required to pay ; it is that he may keep 
both the goods and the money which 
they were to have cost. If he deli- 
berately composes in a letter, or in a 
book, a falsehood, or a number of false- 
hoods, relating to a subject which is of 
importance to him ; he does it for some 
private end of his own. Are not these 
things plain from common experience? 
If we suppose, then, that the Bible is a 
forgery, an invention of designing men ; 
we cannot but conclude, that the object 
of the forgers was to gain some advan- 
tage to themselves at the expense of 
other people, to secure some private, end 
of their own. * 

The certainty of this conclusion is con- 
firmed by reflecting how much time and 
trouble it would cost any man, or any- 
set of man, to fabricate a book like* the 
Bible ; a book so large, containing so 
vast a variety of matter, treating of so 
many subjects, and professing, to describe 
the events of some thousands of years. 
Certainly no crafty forgers would have 



337 

undertaken the labour of contriving and 
composing such a book, without intend- 
ing to be well paid for their pains by ad- 
vantages of which the book was to put 
them into secure possession. 

We may, therefore, lay down the fol- 
lowing rule : If the Bible be a forgery, 
we shall assuredly find it giving to the 
class of persons who fabricated it great 
advantages and privileges of some kind, 
and probably great licence in moral con- 
duct, over other men, and at the expense 
of other men. 

Bearing this rule steadily in mind, let 
us proceed with our examination. 

If the Bible be supposed a forgery, by 
what class of men was it forged ? What 
class of men do you suspect of having 
invented and contrived it ? 

Perhaps you may reply, that it is most 
likely to have been forged by kings and 
governors, in order to establish their 
authority and to increase their power. 

Undoubtedly, the Bible delivers re- 
peated commands to subjects concerning 
their behaviour towards their rulers. And 
the amount of all these commands is this: 



338 

that subjects are ordered, under pain of 
God's severe displeasure, to render to 
rulers the respect and the honour due to 
their station; and to obey them in all 
things which are agreeable to the law of 
God, and authorised by the laws and 
usages of the country. Is there any 
thing unreasonable in these commands ? 
Do they confer any unfair or exorbitant 
privileges on rulers ? If lawful rulers are 
not respected and honoured according 
to their station, and lawfully obeyed in 
things lawful ; could any government of 
any kind go on ? Must not the country 
become a prey to all the calamities of 
having no government at all ; and every 
man be left to despoil and to devour his 
neighbour ? If any one of you were made 
a ruler, would not he justly think it 
reasonable that he should be treated with 
the respect and honour belonging to his 
station, and that he should be obeyed 
according to the laws? You see, then, 
that the directions which the Bible con- 
tains on these points do not afford any 
pretence for thinking that it was forged 
by kings and governors, or for their sakes. 

9 



339 

I will now shew you proofs that it was 
not forged by kings or governors, or for 
their sakes : for I will shew you that it 
contains many things which it never 
would have contained, if it had been 
forged by kings and rulers, or for their 
sakes. For example: the Bible expressly 
declares, that God accepteth not the person 
of princes ; that God is no respecter of 
persons. It pronounces that all men are 
brethren : that God loves the poor, and 
will avenge them if they are oppressed : 
that every man is bound to do to every 
other man, as he would wish the other to 
do to him. It commands all kings and 
governors to rule injustice, and in mercy, 
and in the fear of God. It abounds in 
threatenings from God against unjust 
rulers j and in examples of God's judge- 
ments executed upon them. It affirms 
that every man, the king exactly as the 
lowest subject, shall give an account of 
himself to God before the judgement- 
seat of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and shall 
be rewarded or punished throughout 
eternity according to his deeds while in 
q 2 



340 

the body.* Kings and governors, if they 
had been wicked enough to fabricate the 
Bible, never would have filled it with 
such examples and declarations as these. 
Farther ; the kings mentioned in the 
Bible may be said generally to be either 
heathen kings, or Jewish kings. The 
heathen kings are commonly, as you 
might expect, described as wicked. Of 
the Jewish kings, forty-one, with their 
respective histories and characters, are 
noticed in the Old Testament : and if 
you add from the New Testament four 
or five rulers of the family of Herod, the 
whole number wdll be about forty-six. 
Now, of this whole number, three-fourths 
are pronounced to be decidedly wicked : 
of the remainder, several are questionable 
characters. So that the number of good 
kings among the forty-six is very small : 
and in the conduct even of most of these, 
i 

* Deut. x. 17? 18. 2 Sam. xiv. 14. Job, xxxiv. 
19. Acts, x. 14. Rom. ii. 11. 2 Chron. xix. 7. 
Eph. vi. 9. Col. iii. 25. 1 Pet. i. 17. Matthew, 
xxiii. 8. 1 Tim. vi. 2. Psalm x. 14.; cix. 31.; 
cxl. 12. Isaiah, xi. 4. Luke, vi. 31. 2 Sam. 
xxiii. 3. 






341 

some considerable blemishes are repre- 
sented. If kings and rulers, or flattering 
adherents of kings and rulers, had fabri- 
cated the Bible ; they would certainly 
have made the bad kings and rulers very 
few in comparison with the good. 

If kings and rulers then did not forge 
the Bible, and you still suppose that it 
may have been forged : whom do you 
now suspect of the forgery ? 

Probably you will answer ; " We sus- 
pect that it was forged by priests." 

Why? Let us go to our rule. Does the 
Bible give to priests great advantages 
and privileges, and great licence in moral 
conduct, over others, and at the expense 
of others ? Examine the Bible as to this 
matter. Observe, in the first place, its 
solemn declarations, already mentioned, 
that God is no respecter of persons ; that 
all men are brethren ; that all shall be 
judged according to their works. In 
these points, you see, which comprehend 
every thing the most important, priests 
have no advantage over any other men. 
The Bible also requires the strictest holi- 
ness from priests : and proclaims that un- 
ci 3 



848 

godly priests shall be punishea with ex- 
traordinary severity. It is true, that un- 
der the Old Testament, the tribe of Levi, 
the ministers of religion among the Jews, 
had tythes appointed for their support. 
They were of course to be supported in 
some way : and it does not appear that 
their tythes made them richer than their 
neighbours. And it is a positive cer- 
tainty that, because they were to receive 
tythes, God assigned to them a very 
much smaller portion of land than He al- 
lotted to the other tribes. All that the 
New Testament says concerning the 
maintainance of priests is, that they who 
preach the Gospel must live by the Gos- 
pel ; that the people must furnish them 
with a livelihood, on the general prin- 
ciple of justice, that the labourer is wor- 
thy of his reward ; on the principle that 
a man who labours for others in any way, 
is entitled to a fair recompense from the 
person for whom he labours. And is it 
not equally just that a man who gives up 
his time and his labour for your advan- 
tage, in teaching you how to save your 
soul, should receive a recompense from 



343 

you, as it is that another should be paid 
who is employed for your benefit in 
making a pair of shoes or a table ? But 
the New Testament neither directs how 
much shall be the salary of a minister of 
religion, nor in what shape the salary 
shall be provided. If crafty priests had 
forged the New Testament, they would 
have taken better care of their worldly 
interest. In the East Indies, many 
hundred years ago, a set of cunning Pa- 
gan priests forged a book, which they 
pretended to came from God, and per- 
suaded the ignorant inhabitants to be- 
lieve. In that book the priests are au- 
thorized in fact to do whatever they will ; 
and the most dreadful curses and pu- 
nishments are denounced against every 
man who shall not submit in every thing 
to a priest. This is just what you might 
expect in a book forged by priests ; and 
just what you do not find in the slightest 
degree in the Bible. Nay, so plain is it, 
that the Bible grants no undue privileges 
to priests, that the Popish priests, who for 
the last thousand years have claimed and 
exercised many unjust privileges and ad- 
q 4 



344 

vantages over the laity, have taken every 
method to keep the Bible out of the 
hands of the people, lest the falsehood of 
the claims should be detected. 

You are satisfied, I trust, that the 
Bible, if forged, was not forged by priests. 
Whom shall we suspect? Shall we fix 
upoipt lawyers? You will be ready, I 
know, at once to say, that if lawyers 
made the Bible, they will certainly have 
provided in it well for their own interests. 

Now it happens that the Bible, after 
commanding that justice shall be equally 
administered to every man, rich or poor, 
makes distinct mention of lawyers very 
seldom : and that nearly all which it 
speaks concerning them is, to pronounce 
heavy condemnation against wicked law- 
yers of every description ; and to express 
strong disapprobation of Christians who 
go to law at all, except in some case of 
urgent necessity; and to recommend that 
disputes be settled by friendly arbitration. * 

It is clear, then, that the Bible, if it 
was contrived by men, was not contrived 

* Deut.xvi. 18,19,20. xxv. 1. ; xxvii. 19. Luke, 
vii. 30. xi.45,46. lCor.vi.l— 7. Matth. v. 25, 26. 



3*5 

by lawyers. Whom else do you suspect? 
Do you think it was written by admirals 
or by generals? 

Of admirals and sea-captains the Bible 
takes no particular notice. Officers in 
the army and soldiers are named at times, 
and exactly in the same manner as any 
other person, and without the smallest 
advantage given to them in any way. 
And they are peremptorily commanded 
to do no violence to any man, not to 
accuse any man falsely, and to be con- 
tented with their pay. # If persons whose 
profession is that of bearing arms, whether 
by sea or by land, have no privileges, no 
advantages, no licence in moral conduct, 
of any kind, allowed them beyond other 
men by the Bible : it is quite clear by 
our rule, that they did not fabricate the 
Bible. But I have even a stronger proof 
still, that, if it were fabricated, they had 
nothing to do in fabricating it. For 
the Bible repeatedly declares its deter- 
mination to put an end to their profession 
altogether. The Bible sets its face 

* John, iii. 14. 
Q 5 



S46 

against war # j and affirms it to be a great 
evil, occasioned by our sins. The Bible 
declares that, when the religion which it 
teaches shall fully prevail upon earth, 
men shall beat their swords into plough- 
shares, and their spears into pruning- 
hooks ; that nation shall not lift up sword 
against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any more ; that the world shall rest 
in universal and perpetual peace. 

Is there any other class of persons 
whom you suspect ? Do you suspect 
physicians? They are very seldom noticed 
in the Bible ; and never with any dis- 
tinction in their favour. Or do you sus- 
pect merchants and traders ? Not a word 
in the Bible grants to them any advantage 
over others. And the anger of God is 
strongly proclaimed against merchants 
who use balances of deceit : false weights 
and false measures are declared to be an 
abomination in His sight : the artifices 
and the lies so commonly employed in 
traffic and bargains, and the presump- 
tuous spirit of self-dependence in which 

* James, iv. i. Isaiah, ii, 4. Micah, iv. 3, 



347 

trade is frequently undertaken, are most 
forcibly described : and every sort of im- 
position is threatened with the vengeance 
of the Most High.* 

I am confident that you do not suspect 
your brethren the poor in former ages of 
having invented the Bible. 

There can remain, I believe, only one 
description of men not yet brought for- 
ward by me, whom it is possible that you 
may suspect, You may have a confused 
notion that the Bible was contrived by 
the rich. Look then into the Bible. 
Hozv hardly shall they that have riches 
enter into the kingdom of God! Lay not 
up for yourselves treasures upon earth. 
The love of money is the root of all evil, t 
Is this like a book fabricated by rich men? 
Read the parable of the rich man and the 
beggar Lazarus % ; and observe the rich 
man cast into hell, though it does not 

* Levit. xiv. 35, 36, 37. Deut. xxv. 13—16. 
Proverbs, xi. 1.; xx. 10. 14. Hosea, xii. 7. Amos, 
viii. 5. Micah, vi. 10, 11. 

f Mark, x. 23. Luke, xviii. 24. Matth, vi. 19. 
1 Tim. vi. 10. 

% Luke, xvi. 19. 



348 

appear that he was unjust or hard-hearted, 
but because he was devoted to luxury 
and self-indulgence and the love of 
worldly things. Would rich men have 
made such a parable, if they had forged 
the Bible? Read a few more passages, 
out of many to which I might direct you. 
The deceitfulness of riches choices the word 
of God in the heart. They that will be 
rich fall into temptation and a snare, and 
into many foolish and hurtful lusts, that 
drown men in destruction and perdition. 
Let not the rich man glory in his riches. 
He that getteth riches, and not by right, 
shall leave them in the midst of his days, 
and at his end shall be a fool. God ac- 
cepteth not the persons of princes, nor re- 
gardeth the rich more than the poor. He 
that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his 
Maker. He that mocketh the poor re- 
proacheth his Maker. The rich and the 
poor meet together : the Lord is the Maker 
of them all. * If rich men had wickedly in- 
vented the Bible, the doctrine would have 
been very different from this. Attend 

* Matth. xiii. 22. 1 Tim. vi. 9. Jer. ix.£3. ; 
xvii. 2. Job, xxxiv. 19. Prov.xiv.31.; xvii.5.; xxii.2. 



349 

also to the following circumstances. Our 
Saviour himself, says the Bible, far from 
regarding riches, was born, and lived, 
and died, in poverty. He appointed his 
apostles from among the poor and the 
despised. He declares in a very emphatical 
manner concerning himself, that He came 
to preach the Gospel to the poor. When 
it was preached by his disciples in differ- 
ent countries, the rich commonly rejected 
it, while multitudes of the poor received 
it with faith and joy. Thus St. Paul re- 
minds the Corinthians, that not many 
wise men of the world, not many mighty, 
not many noble, had believed ; but that 
God had chosen the unlearned, and the 
weak, and the poor. So St. James affirms, 
that God had chosen the poor of this 
world, rich in faith, to be heirs of His 
kingdom.* If rich men had invented 
the Bible j would they have made these 
distinctions all against the rich, all doing 
honour to the poor ? 

My Friends, you are now prepared, I 
trust, to exclaim with me : " The 
Bible is not the word of man 1" If so, 

* Luke, iv. 18.; vii. 22. 1 Cor. i. 26. James, ii. 5. 



350 

the Bible is, and must be, the Word of 
God. 

The Bible is the Word of God : and 
the more faithfully you study the Sacred 
Volume, the more will your hearts be 
penetrated by this most important truth. 
In the Scriptures you will find every 
thing revealed which is necessary to 
guide you to happiness in this world and 
in that which is to come. You will be- 
hold the brightest display of the power, 
the wisdom, the holiness, the justice, the 
mercy, of the glorious and eternal God, 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 
Yoii will see the state of your own heart, 
as by nature corrupt, alienated from 
God, and under the dominion of evil ; 
and the greatness of the sins in which 
you have lived. You will see pardon, 
which you couM do nothing to purchase, 
bought for you by the blood of the Son 
of God : and sanctification of heart unto 
repentance, unto faith, unto obedience in 
every good work, freely offered to you, for 
the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the 
Holy Spirit. You will see inconceivable 
glory and blessedness awaiting you in 
Heaven, through the atonement of your 



351 

Redeemer, if you perseveringly seek for 
divine grace to enable you to live unto 
Christ who died for you, and prove the 
sincerity of your Christian profession by 
a steady life of holiness unto the end. 
You will -see judgements the most tre- 
mendous and enduring in reserve for the 
wicked. The wicked shall go away into 
everlasting punishment, but the righteous 
into life eternal. Cleave then unto the 
Bible as to your best treasure. Be con- 
stantly on your guard against the arti- 
fices of ungodly men, who endeavour by 
crafty objections and blasphemous insinu- 
ations, either in word: or in writing, to 
undermine your well-grounded faith; In- 
stantly withdraw your ears from such 
language, and your eyes from such 
publications. Keep at a distance from 
pollution and contagion. Be faithful to 
the Lord your God. Love, cherish, and 
obey, in every thing, His Holy Word. 
Remember that all persons who believe 
the Bible to be true, but do not sincerely 
love and obey it, are numbered nr the 
Scripture among unbelievers. 

Be careful also constantly to bear irt 



352 

mind that branch of your duty to God 
which consists in being faithful to your 
country and your king. You have been 
solicited by artful and self-interested men 
to join them in seditious practices, and 
even in openly rebellious designs. The 
professed objects of such men never 
could be obtained but by public convul- 
sions and the practical ruin of the British 
constitution. And the attainment of 
them would not only be of no benefit 
whatever to you, but would lead directly 
to the accomplishment of the deeper pur- 
poses which many have not hesitated to 
intimate ; namely, plunder, and havock, 
and anarchy* Now you will do well to 
observe that the very same set of men 
who have been eagerly enticing you into 
rebellion against your lawful governors, 
have been equally diligent to destroy 
your faith in the Bible. Those persons 
who are enemies to the word of God are 
enemies to God himself. Can they who 
are enemies to God be real friends to 
you ? Can their counsel to you be good 
counsel ? Is the blessing of God likely to 
be with it, or with you if you follow it ? 



353 

My Friends, we live in times difficult 
and trying to all of us. They are very 
trying to you. But you greatly mistake 
if you think that they are not trying 
to every rank of society above you. It 
may well be believed that your governors 
are sincerely anxious to conduct the af- 
fairs of the country for its good. Even 
if you could not think so well of their 
principles, you should consider that their 
own character and their own interest are 
always concerned in upholding the credit 
and the strength of the kingdom under 
their care ; and that they cannot main- 
tain the credit and the strength of the 
kingdom, without consulting the comfort 
and the welfare of the whole population. 
They will do, let us hope, for your bene- 
fit, all that they reasonably can do. But 
do not require from them impossibilities. 
They cannot at once empty foreign 
markets, which are loaded with English 
manufactures, and make them ready for 
new supplies from our workshops. They 
cannot make foreign merchants, who are 
impoverished by war, able instantly to 
pay for our goods. They cannot make 



35% 



other nations relish and purchase our 
cloth, or our muslin, or our stockings, or 
our cutlery, against their will. They 
cannot effect for your benefit in two 
months all which they may be able to 
accomplish in six or in twelve. If they 
are labouring to improve your condition, 
be grateful to them. If they appear to 
commit an error, remember how many 
things they may see of which in your situ- 
ation you must unavoidably be ignorant j 
and be reasonably certain that they 
have acted wrongly before you censure 
them. If they really fall into an error, 
reflect that all men mistake at times; and 
that your governors, whoever they may 
be, are but men. Pray that the Divine 
blessing may direct their counsels and 
prosper their undertakings ; and that 
both you and they may study, love, and 
obey the word of God more and more, 
and may together partake in larger and 
larger abundance of the grace of God in 
Jesus Christ our Lord. 



THE END. 



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